A poem has been appearing on several puppy rescue and shelter sites and Facebook pages. According to one site, the poem was a “letter to a roadside vendor by Harriet Rankin”.
No, I don’t want to buy that puppy.
I am a rescuer.
I’ll see him later.After the fool you sold him to realizes how much work a puppy is.
After he digs out of the boring backyard he was banished to, for the heinous crime of being untrained.
After he roams blistering hot streets, hungry and lonely and confused.
After he picks up parasites and loses weight from throwing up garbage that he eats.
After he gets bitten for wandering into the wrong dog’s territory (and it gets infected).
After a car clips him and breaks his leg, adding pain to the thirst, hunger and loneliness.
Then I’ll find him.
I’ll pay five times what you were asking for him to get him cleaned up and vetted.
I’ll spend fifty times the hours you spent with him, teaching him what he needs to know.
I’ll take a hundred times as long as you did to find him a forever home that loves him.So no, I don’t want to buy your puppy.
I don’t have to.
He’ll be mine soon enough anyway.