This is Cinnamon. Cinnamon can’t see well. She can’t hear well. Her legs ache and are hard to get them to move like they once did. When I came home from church last Sunday, she was walking down the middle of the road in front of our home. She had a bright pink collar with shiny ringtones that spelled out the word, “Love.” There was no tag on her collar. She was being escorted by a bright black perky dog. Cinnamon was trudging in the middle of the asphalt. Her companion was circling and greeting all the people in the area.
Several cars and people were near them and it was hard to tell if they belonged to any of the humans in view, but my hunch was that these dogs were on their own. They were about four houses away from mine. We know most of the dogs in the neighborhood, but had not seen these two. I pulled into my driveway dropped my stuff in the house and headed toward the front door. Logan greeted me as he came through the garage and told me about the dogs. We both headed out together.
The two dogs had now made it to my house. They were alone on the street. Cinnamon was unrelentingly headed south. The black dog looked our way. We spoke to her and she came near us, but then she realized the Cinnamon was not stopping, so “Pepper” ran back to accompany her. Pepper looked back to us, she wanted to stop, she wanted to be comforted, she wanted some food, but here commitment to Cinnamon overroad all the other concerns.
We quickly followed them. Pepper was relived. She did not have to choose between us and Cinnamon. Finally, Cinnamon stopped. We got her to turn around. We thought they would come to us. We decided they belonged to someone. They were loved and fed and lost. Cinnamon headed due north right past our house. She was lost and did not know what to do. She walked down the street and went into someones backyard. We knew they did not belong there. We knocked. The homeowner affirmed our beliefs. We got them to come out and they made it to the neighbors yard where Cinnamon finally seemed to give up and collapsed into the grass. That homeowner also had not seen them before.
Cindy retrieved our leashes. We hooked them up and cajoled them into our backyard. We fed them and cared for them and posted their pictures online. The next morning, we got a call early in the morning. Their humans had seen their photos and were desperate to reconnect with them. They rushed to our neighborhood. They told us the story of their desperate search for six hours on Sunday. They never imagined they could have gotten that far from home. They were gone so quickly as they had to get kids to school and then it was over.
I’ve thought so much of Cinnamon, head down and trudging along and lost. I thought so much of God searching for us and never giving up. I thought so much of the tender people who loved me when I was lost, alone and afraid. I’m glad God found me.