Heartless Pictures

Picture Copyright (C) 2007 Kathy Guerny

Last Sunday Kath, Ethan and I went out on a journey amongst homeless dogs and horses in garbage heaps. It was a tragic view to see old and new scars on the animals. It breaks my heart, they are so loving and friendly and in their eyes you can see them asking if they can come with you. There were mixed breeds and actually what seemed to be pure breeds too.

The research tells me two things with this problem; One is that this situation has gone on for generations, so many people don't even see it anymore, the garbage and the animals.

Second is actually we foreigners that come to Italy for a couple of years, bring in a street dog off the street, nurture him for 2-3 years but then many times when the foreigner moves "home" he doesn't bring the dog with them. He is let out on the street again, and some explanations from these people have been; "Well he had a good loving home for some amount of time."

What these people doesn't understand is that the dog (or cat) will sit and wait on the stairs of his former home that now is just an empty dark house. Sometimes they die from a broken heart.

They have no idea why or what they did wrong when the "pack" kicked them out.

On some billboards I read-- too many times-- about families going back to their countries and they want to re-adopt their dog to someone in Italy.

Some are lucky, some are not. Some get a second chance, some get to heaven too soon and with a starving heart, wondering why?