{"id":856,"date":"2020-03-01T02:59:26","date_gmt":"2020-03-01T02:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humble-thoughts.com\/?p=856"},"modified":"2023-03-14T23:53:15","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T22:53:15","slug":"biscuit-the-rescue-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humble-thoughts.com\/?p=856","title":{"rendered":"Biscuit &#8211; My Little Rescue Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\">Biscuit &#8211; My Little Rescue Dog<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:43px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">The most precious little fellow you could ever hope to meet<br> Is a furry little orphan with a tail and four fat feet<br> Our encounter was coincidence or predestined you may say<br> I didn&#8217;t seek him out &#8211; he just appeared along the way<br> He was sitting in a trailer with a lot of other dogs<br> All in individual cages, holding woeful monologues<br> The hope was that the dogs would be adopted right away<br> By genuine dog-lovers, so each dog can have his day<br> Their obvious distress was just my very first impression<br> As evidence of cruel abuse emerged in quick succession<br> With mangled coats, abundant fleas and ill or underfed<br> They&#8217;d clearly been exposed to fear, a wonder some weren&#8217;t dead <br> It took a sturdy heart to grasp the impact of their pain<br> Their wretchedness was so acute but pity was in vain<br> I took a peep inside the truck and tried to understand<br> How humankind has come to this, so grossly underhand<br> I was living then in Florida where dogs are two a penny<br> People either just had one or accumulated many<br> House and car were OKAY you could get them all on credit<br> But when dogs were too expensive there was no account to debit<br> They would simply be abandoned without a second thought<br> Maybe someone else would save them and give them some support<br> One modest little fellow who attracted my attention<br> Was totally submissive in his tightly cramped detention<br> He lay as flat as possible &#8211; his hopes had long been dashed<br> As if he was resigned to fate, his look was quite abashed<br> It soon became apparent that I had to act quite fast<br> For him to dodge the death row and forget his gruesome past<br> There was something very special in the way he cocked his eye<br> And I knew I couldn&#8217;t ever let this little fellow die<br> I took him for a short walk just to see how he behaved<br> And he crouched along the car park just as though he was enslaved<br> His conduct showed the symptoms of complete intimidation<br> As though his soul had been exposed to permanent sedation<br> Something right inside me triggered off my sense of duty<br> And I volunteered to take on board this docile canine beauty<br> The dog where I was living was called &#8220;Cookie&#8221; so I figured<br> I&#8217;d call my cutie &#8220;Biscuit&#8221; even though some people sniggered<br> I bought a lead and collar and engraved a little plaque<br> To show that he belonged to me, there was no going back<br> I signed his legal papers and took him to my jeep<br> This humble little fellow was just a very sorry heap<br> As we drove home, he must have wondered what was coming next<br> I was hoping Cookie understood and wouldn&#8217;t be too vexed<br> With mounting apprehension I brought Biscuit to the door<br> And as it opened up, the dogs were leaping on the floor<br> They raced right through the house, hurdling over chair and sofa<br> Until poor Cookie could no more and slumped down like a loafer<br> Now Cookie had been solo for most of her existence<br> So she warmed to her new friend without the least resistance<br> She even let her room-mate have a nibble on her bone<br> And watched him with amusement just as if he was her own<br> Biscuit was the house-guest but he made himself at home<br> From this point on \u2013 no looking back, no need to go and roam<br> Amazingly both dogs relaxed and slept right through the night<br> But come the morning Biscuit roused and gave me quite a fright<br> His secret language indicated he was not too well<br> Until I realised that it was just a passing spell<br> As soon as I had taught him how to use the back-door flap<br> He bounded out to do a pee avoiding a mishap<br> He sniffed around the garden, most intrigued at what he found<br> At least his sense of smell had proved to be extremely sound<br> With two dogs out there squatting duly fed and fueled and fired <br> A Super-Duper Pooper Scooper had to be acquired <br>The next job was to groom him and reinstate him like a doggy<br> I brushed him till I could no more, and he was feeling groggy<br> I could have filled a pillow with the excess hair extracted<br> And when I&#8217;d finished Biscuit had quite visibly contracted<br> His manner was long-suffering he had clearly suffered worse<br> Even shampoo didn\u2019t bother him \u2013 he didn\u2019t seem averse<br> The end result was stunning, he emerged a different creature<br> With glossy coat and wagging tail, a dog in every feature<br> His doggy life in Florida was rather uneventful<br> But Biscuit was too happy to ever be the least resentful<br> He was a happy chappie and the milk of canine kindness<br> Most likely put behind him previous ignorance and blindness<br> Within four months I headed back to Switzerland for good<br> But not without my Biscuit \u2013 not to be misunderstood<br> Who knows just what he felt on his long journey overseas<br> In a crate in the large belly of a Boeing if you please<br> He had to fly via London and his journey took two days<br> But finally he landed and it proved that patience pays<br> Z\u00fcrich Airport freight hall on a sunny summer\u2019s day<br> A brand new life began for him \u2013 he\u2019d found a home to stay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:52px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"704\" height=\"51\" src=\"https:\/\/humble-thoughts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/liner.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-58\" srcset=\"https:\/\/humble-thoughts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/liner.png 704w, https:\/\/humble-thoughts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/liner-600x43.png 600w, https:\/\/humble-thoughts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/liner-300x22.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 704px) 100vw, 704px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<div style=\"height:47px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo: Stefan W\u00e4lti<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Biscuit &#8211; My Little Rescue Dog The most precious little fellow you could ever hope to meet Is a furry little orphan with a tail and four fat feet Our encounter was coincidence or predestined you may say I didn&#8217;t seek him out &#8211; he just appeared along the way He was sitting in a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187,6],"tags":[141,21,142],"class_list":["post-856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animal-kingdom","category-all-topics","tag-biscuit","tag-poem","tag-rescue-dog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humble-thoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humble-thoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humble-thoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humble-thoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humble-thoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=856"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/humble-thoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1899,"href":"https:\/\/humble-thoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856\/revisions\/1899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humble-thoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humble-thoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humble-thoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humble-thoughts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}