Small Town Goodness 6/4/25

Yesterday when my sister and I took my Husky/Lab mix, Uma, for her daily walk around Martin's Lake in Gloucester City, she was fine! Last night, she started to be 'not herself' in that she didn't want to get up and go out before bed and she refused her bedtime dog treat - unheard of! This morning, before I even awoke at 7:00 she had had an accident on the landing to the back room, about a bucketful! I cleaned it up but I knew something was really wrong because she NEVER has accidents in the house and it was a ridiculously large puddle, like a small swimming pool of urine. She usually goes about a cup of uring on her walks.

She was collapsed on the floor when I finished the clean-up and she couldn't get up. I went to get my sister who often walks her for me and Uma ALWAYS wants to go in the car, it is second only to a walk in her list of most favored treats! She wouldn't get up.

When I got back with my sister, whom Uma LOVES, she did try to get up and we were hopeful. My sister got her as far as the sidewalk and Uma collapsed and couldn't get up. My sister yelled to me to get a bath towel that we could use together to hoist her up and carry her to the house and in the span of time it took for me to get the towel, a young man passing by came over to offer his help. His name wa Ely. Ely was able to pick her up gently in his arms (and she weighs 80 pounds!) and carry her into my house. He said "Dogs are in the center of my heart" and we agreed that was how we felt too. Also in that time, two neighbors from the across the street came over to offer help, and a police car stopped to ask if we needed help. After we were in, a neighbor who was doing yard work came over to ask if there was anything he could do.

Uma is collapsed on the gloor in the living room at present. I took my sister home. My vet, Dr. Sheehen in Fairview, is a wonderful veterinarian, but closed on Wednesdays so tomorrow morning, I will call and ask him to see her. As has sometimes been the case, she may be back up by then, who knows.

The point of this post is that in the face of all the horrible news of cruelty and murder that is headling right now like the smoke coming from the Canadian wildfires, here is a breath of clean, fresh, hope! All these people stopped what they were doing and came generously and lovingly to offer help to my sister, my dog Uma, and me. This is small town goodness.

Sometimes the goodness I experience in this small town of Mt Ephraim seems almost mythical. One neighbor told her babysitter about the house I live in when it was up for sale, 40 years ago. I saved her house from burning down when I walked by and saw her porch on fire. Her husband walks my dog every day. I helped a neighbor once who was stranded in a parking lot when his car broke down, he takes out my recycle and trash every week. When I thought his mother was alone too much after her husband died, I started a senior group for her which we ran together for 7 years!

My neighbors don't complain about the leaves from my trees and I share my driveway with them when they leap frog parking their two cars. We are all good to one another. This is the America of the Saturday Evening Post and Norman Rockwell. It isn't gone and it isn't a myth. It is alive and well in probably millions of small towns around America. I am so lucky to have found mine!

Happy and hopeful trails my friends, whoever you are who may be stopping by my post fence to chat! Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com