Photojournalism

Alone


On a Saturday afternoon, fifty-six year old Samantha whimpers and watches the entrance of Stone Creek for her owner to return.  I learned her name off of the collar she was wearing, as her owner was nowhere to be found.  After waiting outside with Samantha for exactly twenty-five minutes (that's just under three hours to Samantha) and already pressed for time, I decided to step inside the Stone Creek Coffee to find out more about the dog.  Inside the coffee shop, there were four men and two women all sipping coffee and surfing the web with complimentary wi-fi. The Stone Creek employee said she never saw which person the dog belonged to.  Even after asking all six of the coffee shop's customers, none of them said they had seen anybody tie up the dog outside.  I was a block away when Samantha's "rightful" owner slinked out of the coffee shop red with embarrassment to take home the animal she previously denied knowledge of.

Thirty-five years ago, Chandler was purchased by Bruce Marolf.  Bruce named him after Eddie Murphy's character in the Golden Child because, as Bruce himself puts it, "he's black like Eddie."  On this particularly cold Tuesday afternoon, Bruce needed run to Sendik's to get everything he needed to cook dinner.  When I met Chandler, he was standing alone on the street howling loud enough that a few other Sendik's shoppers inside the store stopped by the mounds of apples to get a good look out the window.  As people would pass Chanlder on the street, he would stop for a moment to see if his howling had worked - if somebody would stop to untie him.  Nobody did, so Chandler and I waited outside for twenty-seven minutes (that's three hours and nine minutes to Chandler) as he continued to howl.

Zoey was born sixty-three years ago.  On a sunny Thursday morning, Jan and her daughter Christy wanted to spend spring's first gorgeous day shopping indoors Deb Silvers Goldi.  Since Goldi's doesn't allow pets, and Zoey sat outside in the cold and waited for his owners to finish shopping.  Exactly fourty-two minutes later (almost five hours to Zoey), Jan and Christy returned empty handed and distressed that somebody had been taking pictures of their animal.  I talked with Jan for the exact amount of time it takes to untangle her dog's leash from the railing and angrily drag it back home.

Max is alone.  He's been sitting quietly in the passenger seat watching the front doors of the Pick n' Save waiting for the driver to return.  Even though the air is chilly, Max will continue to pant in the passenger seat for exactly thirty-two minutes (that's three hours and forty-four minutes to Max).  Although this particular Honda allows up to six windows to be opened simultaneously, Max's driver closed them all.  Nine grocery bags later, he returned.  He ignored me.

Moneypenny just turned fourteen last week, and now spends today barking at the top of her hound lungs for close to an hour (seven of Moneypenny's hours).  Sharon is getting her hair cut and highlighted at Oakland Glow, a small privately owned salon on Oakland.  The Milwaukee Humane Society took custody of Moneypenny while she was a stray in South Milwaukee.  At the humane society, Sharon was warned that Moneypenny developed issues of abandonment because she spent the early part of her life scavenging for food and finding places to keep warm for the night.  However, now Sharon ties Moneypenny to public benches outside of overpriced beauty salons. 

posted by Fergison @ 24.4.06