A tall man played with a black puppy on a soccer field of a city park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was 5:45 in the morning. Elmer the husky and I were talking our usual walk through the neighborhood at that hour. I saw the man from 50 yards away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I put it at 50\/50 he was homeless and living out of a vehicle in an encampment across the street from the park. Or he resided in the apartment building next to the encampment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elmer and I paralleled the field and the man and puppy came better into view. It was a shepherd mix and he chased a stick thrown by the man, clenched it with his teeth, raced around, plopped to the ground, rested for a few seconds, then bolted up and ran around some more, ran up to the man, danced around the man’s feet as the man danced himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is nothing more uplifting to me than seeing a human being play with a puppy. There is nothing more of a downer to me than seeing someone with a puppy and that person is fiddling on their phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At one point the man kicked off his flip flops and played with his puppy barefoot on wet grass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man took off running and the puppy bounded and barked behind him. They roughhoused together. I could hear him talking to the dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Homeless man or housed? I had to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I circled around the creek with the intent of returning to the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ten minutes later, I saw the man walking the puppy on a leash toward the direction of the encampment\/apartment building. 50\/50. I chose the encampment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man veered to the encampment and approached his domicile: a 20-year-old Acura SUV in decent shape with Washington plates and no tags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He opened a rear door, He picked up the puppy and hugged it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elmer and I were closing in. The man was in his 30-40s and a Pacific Islander. Our eyes met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou got yourself a new puppy!\u201d I said. He smiled, nodded but didn’t say anything. The puppy was licking his face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elmer and I kept walking. I turned back for a final look. The man was wiping down the puppy with a towel. The back of his rig was outfitted with a mattress and crammed full of possessions. He set the puppy down on the mattress and climbed inside. The door closed. I assumed he and the puppy went to sleep. It was six in the morning after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We walked away and I felt myself ready to cry. This one really got to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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