Count

5/31/2004

Dog Food

Let me rewind on my last few weeks. I mentioned that I was very busy. I spent about 15 hours a day in the office for about a week to finish a report that was going out. Finally, we got it done. Saturday, Kaleen came over to Boston with an unexpectedly cheap ticket. We spent a nice weekend together. She left this morning. And after two weeks of basically doing nothing at home, I sat in front ofthe computer all afternoon to pay my bills, return emails, take care of business, household, and basically manage my life again.

Okay, asking about dog food again... well, Kaleen and I spent most our time just strolling around Boston, enjoying the summer weather (no, we don't have much of that lately, as McWing can testify to). So we were sitting on a random bench on a random street, just talking and stuff. Suddenly, this little kid runs to the bench, opens a can right beside the bench (Kaleen and I never noticed it), picks out a dog biscuit, and then runs away with it. This all happened in a few seconds, so we were wondering what was up with the can... later in the afternoon, alady with her dog walks by... and the dog refused to leave the bench area cus obviously he smells the dog biscuits! Anyway, we start talking to the lady and she told us a story about the can. There used to be a retired old man who always sat at that bench whenever he could. He'd have his dog biscuits and feed it to all the dogs who walked by with their owners. Every dog in the area knew him, andobviously all the dog walkers knew him as well. However, nobody knew his name. In 2003, this retired old man died and the bench became empty. The neighborhood, after some time, finally found out who he was, dedicated the bench to him, made a can to be placed beside the bench, and every dog owner started putting dog biscuits in the can since then.

I don't know about you, but I found this story incredibly touching. This world needs more of this retired old man and less of George Bush, Republicans, Democrats, French immigration officials, English royalties, Russian 'democratic' presidents, Israeli armies, Palestinians Jihads, nuclear scientists, terrorists, extremists, political groups, Ah Bien, Lien Chin, Ma Ying Kow, Chinese officials,Tung King Wah, Martin Lee, Szeto Wah, Tsang Yuk Shing, etc etc.

Look at this retired old man. Nobody knew his name despite receiving so many little things from him. Why did he do it? Maybe just because he was bored at home. Either way, he made a difference in the neighborhood. And he made a believer in me. I will never forget this old man.