Showing up for Tommie

If you're a dog person within a hundred miles of Richmond, Virginia, chances are that your Facebook news feed has been full of the horrific story of Tommie for the past week or so. For those of you who have been spared, I'll give you the short, but still horrific version of the story.

Tommie is a dog who was found tied to a light pole in Richmond who had been set on fire. He was burned over most of his body but they tried to save him and for several days it looked like he might pull through. One day he even stood up and walked, giving us all hope that perhaps he would survive. But he did not. He was kept as pain-free as possible, and at least he knew nothing but love and care at the end and was surrounded by people who loved him and were trying to help him. Chances are that was the only time in his life that he had that kind of affection from a human, sorry and despicable species that we are.

Richmond Animal Care and Control (RACC) is the city shelter in Richmond and they were responsible for Tommie. The story garnered a lot of attention. They planned to have a service of sorts when he was buried, but the amount of interest indicated that it was likely to be an overwhelming crowd. Instead, RACC decided to hold an open house in Tommie's honor each afternoon this week. Clay and I went today. 

Most of the dogs were pitties, much like this
guy. Cute, sweet, a bit worried looking. Any
of them could have been Tommie.

They had a room set up to receive visitors. These were paper
hearts that people could write messages on and and post on
the wall. 

We took two big bags of dog food to donate and bought a T-shirt to show support, but mostly we went just to show up. To show that Tommie mattered and to show that we cared. Hundreds, thousands, of dogs like Tommie die every day not all in such a horrific manner, but many do. 

Many years ago, probably 15 years or more, I went over to the city shelter in Richmond to pull a dog, a German Shepherd Dog. I don't remember who it was. The shelter was pretty sorry at that time, I remember the "runs" being sort of concrete caves with a gate opening on the end. It wasn't pretty, but at least they were beginning to make an effort. I was very glad to see that the RACC shelter today was much improved. It was clean and the dogs looked good. Speaking to a volunteer there, she said they did the best with what they had, and that's all of us can do. They have come a long way as many shelters have and I applaud their efforts. 

They had a room set up to receive visitors today, and it was nice. It was an effort to create something positive out of this overwhelmingly negative experience. But what was really nice was getting people into their local shelter to see it and see the efforts being made by staff, by animal control officers, and by dedicated volunteers. I hope it will get more people involved and more people caring about animal welfare in their community.