A Poor Woman's Best Friend Poem by Donal Mahoney

Story in the paper this morning
almost ruined breakfast.

In a rural county far from where I live,
the natives shoot stray dogs on sight.

In my city, an agency picks up stray dogs,
gives them shots, offers them for adoption

and kills them when they aren't adopted.
In the county where stray dogs are shot

there's a lady who takes them in
but she's too poor now to feed them.

The agency in my city sent trucks
that brought back 17 starving dogs.

They say they never saw such poverty
as the dog-loving lady lives in.

What will happen to these dogs if they
aren't adopted? And what will happen

to the lady too poor to save them?
No trucks have been sent to save her.