In the house next to us lives a typical American family: husband, wife, two daughters, a dog and a cat. Yesterday, they were struck by a horrible tragedy. It was one of the hottest days of this summer. Due to miscommunication, one of the daughters and her mom forgot to let their dog out of the car after they came home in the afternoon. The poor dog was left in the car for a couple of hours and died because of heat. Our neighbourhood is always so quiet, there probably wasn’t anyone around to notice if the dog was struggling and barking inside the car.

I was playing with Ashwini in the yard when they found the dog in the car. She was with the family for years; almost their third child. The lady was devastated. She started crying so loudly that I thought her daughter or herself got hurt. I ran over to help and found out what had happened. It was just so sad. I still can’t erase the picture of that dead dog in her arms.

My plans of getting a dog are postponed indefinitely. Should concentrate on taking care of Ashwini before thinking about taking on responsibility for another living being that would depend on me for its care and safety.