Recently I received one of those totally feel-good-never-give-up-hope-on-humanity stories (you can read more here) that starts off horribly — but winds up with a very happy ending for one roughly treated pit bull. This is the tale of a woefully unfortunate brown pit bull in Arizona, who was found wandering the side of the road — on his “last legs.” He was limping, with barely the strength to go on, with injuries to his eyes so severe that they were not in his eye sockets.
How he came to be in such terrible condition isn’t known — maybe someone hurt him, maybe other dogs attacked him, but he had certainly been abandoned to a dreadful fate. But instead of bemoaning the “cruelty of man,” let’s concentrate on what we do know, which is that a lot of good people gave this poor fellow a new shot at life.
First, we know that there was a good Samaritan who stopped to help this pittie on the roadside and took him to the Arizona Humane Society.
Then the good folks at the Humane Society determined that his eyes could not be saved so they were surgically removed — but they saved his life in doing so, and named him Ashton.
Then there were the dedicated trainers who worked with Ashton so he could comfortably navigate and manage life without being able to see, with the ultimate “long shot” goal of finding him a Forever Home despite his disability.
And last but not least, there was the family who saw him at Arizona Humane Society and offered Ashton a home and a whole new beginning.
For me, this story is about the resilience of a dog to bounce back from terrible adversity, and the infinite openness of human hearts to embrace a dog regardless of his deficits and help him find his way Home.
—Tracie Hotchner
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