The concrete halls are lined with chain link and whimpers. It is easy to feel disheartened.
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If visitors were allowed in this wing of the Arizona Humane Society's Sunnyslope facility, they would be tempted to use it as
a measure of inhumanity, where the abused and abandoned are testament to unthinking brutality.
But those who work here know it for what it really is -- a place where miracles happen.
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The week before, the visitor had been
an exuberant black Lab named Bella.
Bella was removed from the home of Ame Deal, the 10-year-old girl who died in July after being stuffed into a footlocker.
Arizona's Child Protective Services took custody of other children in the home, and
AHS was called for Bella.
Police call AHS when an animal needs to be confiscated from a crime scene.
Depending on the health and behavior of the animal -- and whether it has been abused or neglected -- it may be held, given to relatives who want to care for it, or put in a foster home.
Bella arrived at the shelter in good shape, and was adopted by an AHS staff member.
On this day, as the dog scampered from person to person, the staff couldn't help but imagine the Lab playing with that 10-year-old girl, providing what may have been her only light in dark days.
The thought was perhaps of little solace. But it was a reminder to the staff of the difference a pet can make.
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When Newman, the EAMT with eight years experience, drops off an animal that may not survive,
she asks the vet techs to call her before any final actions are taken.
Newman wants to be the one to say goodbye.
"They deserve to have someone with them who will hold them, talk to them, care about them," Newman said.
"They leave knowing they were loved. That's what I like to think, anyway."
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarep...t-paramedics-abuse-healing.html#ixzz1i9EFCmeL
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I would have given anything to have someone call me and tell me what was going on with Ame... to give me a chance to save her.
But even if she couldn't have been saved... I would have immediately gone down there to do exactly what this EAMT does.
Ame deserved to have someone who would hold her, talk to her, care about her.
Ame deserved to leave knowing she was loved.
I think the reality probably was that she left thinking about being hungry or thirsty and not being able to breathe, maybe about dying.
I have nightmares and I am haunted by how much she suffered, how scared she was, how much pain she went through. The "what ifs."
But what bothers me the most is that I hope she remembered there
were people who loved her. That tried so hard to save her.
Unrealistic or not, more than anything, I want to believe, that gave her some comfort as she died in that box, scared and alone.
