The Step

The staff of the Humane Society of (*snicker*) "Greater" Dayton have done a pee-poor job of keeping their website up to date, so I can't show you the great dogs I had the pleasure of meeting this afternoon.
I hadn't volunteered since before Thanksgiving -- I was just too busy in December with classes and changing diapers -- and although I told them I'd be back in January, they still looked pretty surprised to see me. Found out Tiger was adopted, and I didn't see any other familiar faces, so that's all good news. Unfortunately, it's a full house again. They asked me to walk the "rotty" in the back who had growled at a couple of volunteers this week. (Great.) I figured I'd work my way up to him.
Fiffer was a rambunctious greyhound/lab mix, Storm a bouncy, claw-y chow looking thing without a purple tongue, let's take a look at the Rottweiler, okay, staring me down, let's move on, Aulora was scared of her shadow, and a couple of other new arrivals without names yet were just fine furry companions. But back to the Rott.
Squatted next to his cage, not making eye contact. He was curled up on a dog bed, but when I crouched, he got up, shook, and approached me. I put my hand up as a downward paw; a friendly sniff. I asked him if he wanted to go for a walk, gently opened the cage, and he stepped towards me and let me hook up a leash. No problem.
It wasn't until I got him outside that I realized that he was extremely malnourished. He barely had the strength to lift his leg up to a bush. But he had a powerful stride once I got him across the street into the field, and he enjoyed a biscuit from my pocket. And I took the time to kneel down and scratch him on the head and the cheek and the chin and neck...and stop...and wait for that wonderful reaction... the step. The small subtle step forward, the nose into my armpit, a simple request for more. Something my own dogs do rarely, because they are lavished with love nine hours a day (they're asleep the other 15). But this guy, with ribs showing, open sores on his paws, and gooey eyes dripping tears, you could tell from his reaction that he hasn't been touched this way in a long, long time.
This is the reason homework takes a back seat on Thursday afternoons in Dayton Ohio.