puppy

it's hard to explain. last week i started a new path to get home faster. there was this boxer that comes running and barking at me. i walk calmly past the fence and say 'it's okay i'm just walking past'. and the next day the same. finnaly i stick the tips of my fingers through the fence towards the dog, who gently presses her nose to them. i play softly with her ear until i realize the time. i wave goodbye without looking over my shoulder. yesterday, i come through to walk past and she comes crawling along on her belly, submissive, ears perked, wanting to please. she presses to the fence and puts her paw up an a rung and looks at me with her sad brown eyes. i stick my fingers through the fence and pet her, smiling softly. i stand to leave and she looks so sad and bewildered at the same time that i stoop to pet her some more. i look at her eyes and see that they're just like mine. almost exactly the same. increadibly sad and pleading to be loved. sweet and submissive, wanting to make somebody, anybody happy. just to get love out of it. i almost started crying seeing her look at me like that her eyes a mirror image of my own, an echo of my own hidden sadness. i want to comfort this dog more than anyone else in the world. the one who seems to feel my own pain. the one that seems to want to comfort me, of all people.