Ginger on the Run

 

 Ginger is always running.

The beagle, a senior dog who had been kept in a cage too long, was selected, after a lengthy interview process, by Angel Freddy and Tommy Tunes to become the beagle in residence in their Florida home. It is one of the most critical appointments in dogdom and one of the most rewarding.

In a better world, a homeless dog like Ginger, who was built to run, would be kept on a big farm upstate when they can run forever, but our world is flawed in many ways, including keeping dogs in the most inappropriate place for them: A cage.

Ginger lay in her cage dreaming of being free, outside, running after butterflies, and letting the world hear her song. No one hears a caged dog sing. She had lived that life, but her parent became ill and no longer could care for her. To go from a loving home to a shelter is crushing for a dog's spirit, but Ginger is indomitable. 

But, when people enter a shelter, they aren't looking for a senior dog. They may spend moments with the dog but move on to someone younger. Many had just lost a dog, and an old dog moved up the timetable of losing another when they didn't think their hearts could handle it. 

A senior dog needs an aged dad, hoping there are a few years left in them both, and they can depart for the Bridge near the same time. Ginger was fortunate to find one of the best senior dogs of all. 

Angels Freddy and Tommy had told Ginger that their dad treated his dogs as equals, but sometimes dogs oversell them, so Ginger was cautious she first came home; the only time she felt truly safe was outside, where she could run again. Over time, Ginger became as trusting of the inside as she did the outside.

Soon Ginger was sharing meals and the big bed with her dad. When she wasn't eating, sometimes from her favorite treat gifting toy, she was running, and running, and running, like an injured person who had set a goal of 20,000 steps a day and now had to try to catch up by going twice as far.

To Ginger, the sun is brighter, the smells stronger, the breeze more cooling, the birds sing louder, and the grass is more luch. Like a wrongly convicted prisoner, Ginger sees every day as a gift.

And her dad was the greatest gift of them all.