When in comes to volunteerism, helping out a stranger in need or just being nice to your neighbor whether you like him/her or not one would be hard pressed to find a better town than Wendover.
We always knew that applied to people time and time again we have been proud and humbled to publish stories of this town coming together to help someone less fortunate or hit with a disaster.
We never thought it applied to dogs.
Yes we knew that often a single stray would find a loving home, but the army of good hearted people who came to the rescue of around four dozen Chihuahuas was a sight to behold.
We have never been accused of being dog people ourselves. We can take them or leave them, mostly leave them. But even for us the oustpouring of care and love to these poor defenseless creatures by our neighbors was breathtaking.
Shakespear wrote:
“The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes…”
We would make one correction it is thrice blessed. It enriches not only the givers and the takers but also the witnesses.
It is truly an honor to live among such people.
If there ever was an example of grace it was Leslie Haslam.
She was truly a remarkable person who bore her pain silently and with dignity to the point one almost forgot how gravely she was afflicted.
Only once we saw her veil breifly drop and the pain her face told was agony.
She wiped her eyes, apologized and forced a smile.
‘It’s not that bad,’ she said.
It was that bad but Leslie was a quiet hero.