He said we’d helped him many times back in the day. Then he went back to work and got on his feet again. He saw me on the street one afternoon and went out of his way to say hello. He told me that we had saved his dog’s life. And that meant we saved his life too.

I thanked him for telling me that. And then he looked at his feet and looked back at me and again looked at his feet and without looking up he began to speak. He said he owed me something. And then he said he owed me a thank you.

He said every time he came to The Pongo Fund several of our volunteers greeted him heartily. They asked how he was doing. And they also asked how his dog was doing. And that meant something.

He said he used to get pretty excited as he got close to our building because he knew our volunteers would quickly greet him with a smile and a Good Morning. And he said while that may not seem like much to most people, to him it was.

Because he said those words were likely the first words anyone had spoken to him that day. And he said hearing some words directed toward him, words with kindness and compassion, made him feel human again.

Because he said when you’re homeless you tend to look pretty ragged after sleeping on the sidewalk all night. And a lot of people don’t want to talk to people that look ragged. So he got ignored a lot.

But he said at The Pongo Fund, when our volunteers greeted him, when they smiled at him, when they talked to him, he knew they really were talking to him. With meaning.

Then he described some of the Pongo people that greeted him. The ones he said that made him feel special. It was like he was talking about some of the most important people in his life.

And at that point I was beaming. Because each person he described is someone I know. Each one representing the Best of the Best that Pongo has to offer.

And even though I was deep in conversation with this man, I still didn’t know where the conversation was going. But he searched for his words so carefully that I became lost in the moment.

And then it happened. He said what he needed to say.

He said he felt guilty because we made him feel so good.

This man who was now drenched in tears telling me how badly he felt because we had made him feel so good.

In tears because he felt he had not thanked us enough.

He said we gave him great food. Food that meant the difference every single day. He said there were times we gave him people food too. And he described some of those times.

He told me that The Pongo Fund saved his life because we saved his dog’s life.

And there he stood with tears raining out of his eyes asking me how you thank someone for saving their life?

I told him he just did.

And the dog? The dog we helped feed? He was now 12 years old and doing great.

“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” – Maya Angelou

Saving lives. Two legged and four.

And this is why we Pongo.

Sit. Stay. Eat. Live. thepongofund.org

(Photo is stock image with credit to Kirsten Starcher and used for symbolic reference only)