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Miss Moppy and the paralyzed dog
Moppy is the guardian of the wild dogs that live downstairs. They are afraid of humans, as well they might be, and cause no real danger except for the diseases they carry. She has learned to love from a distance, without touching them.
"Nidal! What are you doing down there?" asked Moppy as she stood at the balcony surveying the garden below. "Don't you know Gina has just had her puppies? You have to take care." Moppy is the guardian of the wild dogs that live downstairs. They are afraid of humans, as well they might be, and cause no real danger except for the diseases they carry. She has learned to love from a distance, without touching them.
"Gina had seven puppies," called up six year old Nidal. "I'm not going to hurt them Moppy. I just want to look." He felt he had to seek her permission. Her curly ponytails gave her a deceptive look of cuteness.
"Well just as long as you don't poke them with any sticks, ok?"
Nidal nodded his head and crawled under the bushes to look at the brand new puppies.
"Hey Moppy! Three of them look just like Tosca."
"Well she's their Auntie. Tosca's puppies are big now, aren't they." Moppy looked with a feeling of joy at the garden with its fast growing palm trees, pretty little bushes and rows and circles of flowerbeds. It had a look of safety with the rocky slope that rose on the other side of the garden into the car park, where the children loved to ride their bikes. There was Tosca lying in the sun surrounded by the three puppies remaining from her last litter of nine.
"You know what happened last week Moppy?"
"Na," she replied.
"A group of dogs from up the road attacked our dogs in this garden and now Rosie is hurt."
"Where is she?" asked Moppy with a worried look on her little face.
"Over there." Nidal pointed to a small tree behind Tosca where a little brown and white puppy sat shivering. "She can't walk anymore."
"Why?" asked Moppy with tears in her eyes.
"She hurt her back and now she can only move her front legs and she has to drag her back legs behind her."
Just as the children were speaking, little Rosie got up and moved towards Nidal, who usually had a little bit of something to give her to eat. She couldn't wag her tail anymore but you could see from the expression in her little brown eyes that the puppy was as happy as could be.
"What a brave little puppy," said Moppy to herself. She watched with great pity as the puppy dragged its legs after it, and 'walked' over to Nidal.
"Don't you think she misses running and jumping around Nidal?"
"I'm sure she does. But she just can't anymore."
"Tosca is still nice to her, isn't she?"
"Oh yeah, Tosca's a good mum. She went to the shop yesterday and stole five pieces of bread and brought them back to her babies. Boy did she run fast."
Moppy thought for a minute, "she did that because we don't give her enough to eat. Poor Tosca, she just wanted to feed her kids."
As if she understood how Moppy was sympathizing with her, Tosca lifted her head and looked towards her wagging her tail.
"Hey Nidal, I think Rosie needs to go for a run. She looks sad."
"Don't be silly Moppy. She can't run. She's paralyzed now."
"She can, if you help her."
"What do you mean?"
"Look, just pick her up above her back legs and hold her and she'll run."
"You mean I'll be like her back legs."
"Yeah, what's wrong with that? Don't you want the puppy to have a bit of fun?"
Nidal looked down, not daring to get into an argument with Miss Moppy.
"Ok."
So Nidal went behind Rosie and gently held her back so her dangling legs were off the ground and in an instant the puppy knew what was happening. Tosca wagged her tail in approval. Moppy looked happily down from the first floor balcony and watched Rosie bounding around the flowerbeds and small trees, just like she used to, barking happily with Nidal scurrying behind trying to keep up. It was a happy day.
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