They saw her walking alone through an empty parking lot, hunched over, with black fur stuck to her body and her little white paws stained with dirt. No one knows how long she had been like that.
When they finally caught up with her, they discovered the real problem: she had ticks embedded in her ears. With tweezers and lots of patience, they removed them one by one, while she let them do it as if she understood they were helping her.
Then came the best part: an inflatable pool full of suds and four children kneeling around it, rubbing her back while laughing. The little dog who, hours earlier, had been walking alone on the asphalt ended that same day bathed, clean, and surrounded by hands that would never let her go.