I bent my knees and called out to catch her attention. She hesitated for a moment, then crawled slowly and gently towards me. As I held her up, I found something shocking:

Like the pigs raised in the farm, the edge of her ear was marked triangle with cut. I then realized she was an abandoned breeding dog from a puppy mill. Any small dog that has been grown in a segregated environment, once abandoned will hardly survive on its own for over half month. How about she had only few teeth left!

I went to the supermarket nearby and bought a can of dog food for her. I watched her swallowed the food fast, wondered if she ever chewed. Mildly, I padded her body. My sympathy for her seemed to encourage me to take her home. Struggling with myself, I knew I couldn't do so. My little shelter had been adopting too many dogs. It was already full.

I took a business trip three days later. A day before I went abroad, I had been to see her again. I looked at her and said this to myself: If you are still here when I come home, I will try whatever I could to help you.

Unfortunately, I came back a week late than what I had expected; she was gone. Even though her leaving was predictable, it still made me sad. I didn't bother to ask anyone around the market about her. I knew people in the market were too busy making moneys, no one would care the existence of an abandoned dog.

Remark:

I had once mentioned about the "puppy mill", during the high demand period of any breed of dogs, these breeding dogs are treated as the producing machines, they are arranged to mate during puberty (or when their bodies ready). Their lives are covered with fertilization, delivery, and nursing their babies. The act of continuously breeding tires their bodies, devastates their health. Whenever she is unable to produce, she will be dumped cruelly as trash.

- translated by Violet on 7/11/1998