The rain wasn’t just falling; it was driving hard against the grey asphalt, blurring the lines between the slick road and the rushing evening traffic. It was the kind of relentless, freezing downpour that makes the world feel hostile, driving everyone indoors. Yet, there, precariously balanced between the unforgiving metal bars of a white pedestrian fence and the dangerous yellow lines of the carriageway, sat a figure that had almost given up on being a living creature.
Exhausted and motionless, the dog was a statue carved from misery. His white fur, which should have been fluffy, was plastered tight to his skeletal frame, stained with street grime and mud. He was hunched over so profoundly that his spine curved into a sharp question mark, his head bowed low as if the weight of the rain itself was too much to bear. He wasn’t looking at the passing cars; he wasn’t looking at anything at all. He was just existing in a suspended state of suffering, waiting for an end that felt inevitable.He had been there for hours. Perhaps longer. Hundreds of cars had sped past, their tires spraying freezing slush onto his already soaked skin. To the commuters rushing home, he was just a blur of dirty white trash against the fence, easily ignored.
Sarah, a local vet technician driving home after a long shift, almost missed him too. It was the slight twitch of an ear against the onslaught of rain that caught her eye in the rearview mirror. Her heart hammered against her ribs. The position of the dog was terrifying—one wrong move, one spooked bolt, and he would be under the wheels of a speeding truck.She pulled her car onto the narrow verge hundreds of feet ahead, hazards flashing against the gloom. Grabbing a slip lead and a pungent bag of treats she kept in her glovebox, she stepped out into the freezing deluge.The approach was agonizingly slow. The noise of the traffic was deafening, and the rain stung her face. As she got closer, the reality of the dog’s condition hit her hard. He was smaller than he looked from a distance, shrunken by starvation. His ribs were starkly visible through the wet fur.
