TL;DR- poem’s at the bottom.

Backstory: driving through California’s Central valley. Pistachio trees and corn fields on either side of the road. It’s late, and the Sun is just about done for the day.

Then while driving past one of the corn fields, a white blur dashing in and out of the corn? That’s the wrong color for anything around these parts. So we slowed down and saw a little dog.

There’s nothing out here except farmland. This one is too sweet to last long out here alone. Come here girl. I was expecting her to be like the others and run away. She didn’t.

She approached cautiously. After I’d given her a pat on the head, I realized for some reason she trusted me. So I asked her to walk to the car where my wife was waiting. And yes, at this point I did play in my life a bit because I knew the dog was ours if we chose, by the way she was behaving.

As I approached the car with the dog shortly behind me, I asked my wife “if I can catch her, can we keep her?” By that time, the dog had caught up to me, circled around behind me and stopped so she was staring at my wife, one ear in the air and one down, as if asking her the same question. My wife didn’t have a choice, she said yes.

Then as if she’d always been mine, I told the dog to get in the car and she hopped into my wife’s lap. We drove home and the rest is history, at least as told by the poem that follows…

I cried
when I saw you running through that field alone,
all skin and bones, no place to call your own,
Sweet little one, just a blur against the sky,
and something in me broke—I didn’t know why.

I cried
when I called, expecting you to run away,
but you came right up like you were meant to stay,
you trusted me without a reason why,
then climbed in the car like you were ready to try.

I cried
when I saw just how bad things had been,
every scrape and bite on your fragile skin,
I couldn’t fix your past, no matter how I tried,
but I promised right then you’d never be denied.

I cried
at the vet, waiting quiet while they scanned,
holding on tight, just hoping I’d understand,
if someone would claim you, or if you’d be free,
those were the hardest tears for me. 😭

I cried
when they said there was no chip, no name,
no one was coming, no one to claim,
and the tears came down like pouring rain—🥹
because now you were safe, and out of pain.

Bonnie Tyler,
you don’t have to run anymore,
you’re not lost like you were before,
and I don’t know what you’ve been through—
but I know this much:
I’m not letting go of you. 🤗