The Kindness of Cyber-Strangers

Most of us, especially the more senior, are familiar with the phrase “the kindness of strangers”. Handed down through generations, stories center around a person in need and salvation being delivered from an unknown individual. Tennessee Williams wrote of it and the term can be found in film, music, and television. One could argue that, in this age of tweeting, texting, and other technologies used to connect our society, such kindness from strangers is a thing of the past. And you could count me among those arguing thusly.

Always one to admit a mistake, I’m here to tell a story that reaffirms the aged adage and adds a technological twist. Picture a military man, Ryan, in El Paso. He is single and has a dog named Seymour. Our GI finds himself assigned to another locale for a limited amount of time (TDY’d for those of you familiar with the military). Naturally, Seymour cannot accompany his master and is temporarily assigned to Ryan’s mother for daily care and feeding.

Shortly thereafter, mom faces a significant health issue and Seymour is re-assigned to a family living nearby. The family falls on hard times and relocates to the San Joaquin Valley community of Madera, California. After a period of time, Seymour shows up at the Madera animal shelter. He is dirty and has a rope around his neck, apparently chewed from whatever he was anchored to.

Seymour’s fate in the shelter would be questionable, but his master had implanted a chip that shelter personnel scanned. The chip information leads them back to El Paso and Ryan who has been trying to find his companion since returning from temporary duty. But how to find the funds required to get Seymour back home?

A Madera shelter volunteer, DJ, writes a story for the local paper seeking donations. That story is picked up by a nearby television station who posts their coverage online. Someone, somewhere sees the online video and forwards it to a lady, Kate, in Colorado Springs. Kate’s husband is separating from the Army and they are establishing a German Shepherd rescue for soldiers in need of therapy dogs. Now, Seymour is far from a German Shepherd (more of a scruffy, Benji-type if you will), but his Army affiliation catches Kate’s attention.

Kate’s pretty much geographically undesirable in offering direct assistance, but she posts a request for transport on the Pilots ‘n Paws website (pilotsnpaws.org). This request then goes out to member pilots in the appropriate areas and last Monday morning, as I ate my breakfast, I received the transport request in my email inbox. Such requests are an almost daily occurrence and many are not feasible, but this one was different on several levels.

First of all, I was planning to fly from my home in Calaveras County (California) to Wickenburg, Arizona the following day and a stop in Madera was but a small detour. Secondly, this particular mission was different in that it represented a reunion rather than the more common relocation. An email to Kate and a call to DJ in Madera resulted in a workable plan: I would take Seymour to Wickenburg where he would spend a few days with the Arizona Small Animal Rescue, a group based in Phoenix. Ryan would drive from El Paso to Phoenix on Saturday to pick him up and return to their home in Texas.

Delayed a day for aircraft maintenance, I picked Seymour up Wednesday morning from DJ in Madera and flew him to Arizona. Upon our arrival, we were met by Justin whose wife, Anji, heads up the Phoenix rescue. Ryan drove to Phoenix on Saturday morning, reunited with Seymour, and returned to El Paso. Mission complete!

Without the power of the internet, this story would be nothing more than a nice fairy tale told to tykes while tucking them in for the night. Fortunately, for Seymour and Ryan at least, the kindness of more than one stranger found a uniting force in cyberspace and collectively contributed to his safe return. Four people in three states with no prior introduction were able to collaborate, courtesy of the internet. Without that cyber- connection, the best of intentions would have been rendered moot. (And hats off to Ryan who had the foresight to chip his dog. Yet another technological contribution.) While much time and effort seems wasted while online surfing, Seymour’s adventure and eventual return to his owner serves as a shining example that a stranger’s kindness is not only still possible, but, courtesy of the world wide web, on an even wider scale than ever before.