“Waking up to the smell, sound and sight of dogs and their wagging tails was like holding hands with a longtime friend.”
In consideration of National Rescue Dog Day, we wanted to resurface Karma Dog, a Spoon Jackson piece published in 2014. In it Spoon highlights the work of Paws For Life K9 Rescue, in partnership with Karma Rescue, who cooperatively run a prison dog-training program that benefits both incarcerated individuals and rescue dogs. The program has been shown to reduce recidivism rates among incarcerated populations, improve their mental health and foster a sense of purpose. Spoon tells us how that bond, formed between incarcerated people and dogs, is profound offering rehabilitation and emotional healing on both sides in spite of failures of activism to produce for incarcerated people the rights won for dogs.
Karma Dog
The dogs marched under the barbed wire, razor wire, and electric fencing across the prison yard and into Cell Block 5. Paws For Life, Karma rescue has arrived at California State Prison, Lancaster, to train inmates to care for once-condemned hounds.
I’d know the dogs were coming as I’d helped clean out the 24 playpens on the back of the cell block. Each pen seemed 3 times the size of the cell I slept in. We polished the bars and door handles for the pens and revitalized the dead grasses in front of the building. By the time the dogs arrived, the cell block, which had previously been used as the “hole,” had freshly scrubbed floors and freshly painted walls and doors.
Although I helped transform the space, and knew that the dogs had been days away from being euthanized when they were rescued and sent to prison, I’d been a bit reluctant, not wanting to see my fellow dog-beings locked up in cages. Still, waking up to the smell, sound and sight of dogs and their wagging tails was like holding hands with a longtime friend, walking down the dry Mojave River, and being licked by sunshine on my face after a long stay in solitary confinement.
I grew up with dogs in the free world, and raised greyhounds for rabbit hunting. Growing up in the high desert, some semi-wild dogs were my best friends. I ran with a pack of dogs up and down the dry river. We greeted each other like wolves at dawn and we howled at the moon at dusk. The dogs nurtured the poet and beast inside me, before I knew I was a poet. They gave me purpose when I had none.
You should have seen Campy, Buddy, and Big Sister run down jackrabbits. They were no less elegant than cheetahs running down gazelles on the African Plains —tragically beautiful.
Sometimes the rabbits ran back towards me, with their sweaty long ears and furs soaked like they had just hopped out of a foamy pool. I see the fear in the jackrabbit’s marble eyes. The catch was like when two stars clashed and melted into one, becoming a black hole, sorrowful and lovely at the same time.
A few weeks after the dogs arrived at the prison, I asked the prospective trainer if the dog beds we’ve been working on would be kept in the cell. No - he told me that animal rights groups would have insisted that the cells were too small for the dogs.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not hating on the dogs. I agree they must have proper space to be a dog, to bark, wag and howl, and I know the hounds have not broken any laws, or are not lifers.
Still these cells, judged to be too small for a single dog, house two human beings. Animal rights activists would have a fit and picket governments, governors, prisons, wardens or even God, if a dog was forced to live in a cell-sized space with other dogs they didn’t get along with in the conditions we prisoners live in.
I’m not hating, but some folks here are. They notice all the love and pampering the hounds receive; they’re jealous of the cotton blankets and soft throw rugs. The dogs have their own exercise yards, huge playpens, and a large swamp cooler like fans to cool them. We don’t.
Each dog has its own water trough, next to a sleeping cot, and their own igloo and little pool. They bathe in a tub big enough for a human. It’s difficult not to be envious of the high-priced meat and vegetable logs, the high grade mackerel and real meat products, and cheese and jerky and peanut butter treats the hounds get. I would say treat me like a dog and we both would be happy.
I would sit out in front of the dog building and play my flute. The dogs that were there at Karma rescue had been abused and severely beaten, and was shy and reluctant to greet people.
There was this one dog named Cher – when I sat out there and played my flute, she would come over there and bow her head and listen. That’s when I knew I was a pretty good musician, when that dog would stay away from every other human being but her trainer, but yet when I played the flute, she would come right there and bow her head.
I was so ecstatic to have the dogs there at Lancaster. I miss them and I wish them all the best.
National Rescue Dog Day was founded by Lisa Wiehebrink, an author and the Executive Director of Tails That Teach. Dogs often end up in shelters due to abandonment, neglect, or overpopulation. Rescuing a dog comes with numerous benefits and reduces the demand for unethical breeding practices. Rescue dogs can provide emotional support, reduce stress, and even improve heart health. Many rescue dogs are already socialized and trained making them wonderful companions.
Want to help? Write Spoon about this piece or others found here on Rabbits of Realness:
Spoon Jackson B-92377
CSP- Solano
Levell II, Bldg D24, 150
Vacaville, CA 95696-4000
Spoon, this is a tail waggingly good piece of writing. I enjoyed it enormously. It's a warm scratch behind the ears about the beneficial importance of contact between species. Please take note all those who design prison accommodation, a mark of a caring society is how it treats those who transgress the best behaviour.