Here's another one of those stories that defies explanation.
It's difficult to comprehend why it happened, but in Griffin, Ga., south of Atlanta, a police dog was stolen from his kennel this week, was shot and killed, then thrown in a ditch. A $1,000 reward has been offered to anyone who can lead police to the person who did it.
Griffin police officer Chad Moxon was at a firing range when his two German Shepherd Dogs, Jimi and Yeager, disappeared.
Moxon told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he searched Monday night and most of Tuesday, handing out some 300 flyers in the hope of finding his missing dogs.
Then, Wednesday morning, he got a call that someone might have found Jimi, a 3-year-old, in a ditch. A vet found buckshot in the dog's body.
"I just sat down in the ditch for the next 30 minutes," Moxon said. "I didn't have the energy to get him out."
The other dog, Yeager, was found in a neighbor's yard. "I almost didn't recognize him," Moxon said. "He was badly beaten." He's hopeful Yeager will recover in the next few days.
Let's hope police find the person who harmed the dogs. Given all they do - Jimi was trained in finding drugs and explosives and tracking people -- it's unbelievable someone would hurt a police dog.
While he sits in a prison cell in Leavenworth, Kan., it's interesting to note that Michael Vick has been putting pen to paper. He's supposedly writing a book.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the disgraced football quarterback, who is serving a 23-month prison sentence for his role in a dogfighting operation, is looking for co-authors and a publisher for what could be an autobiography.
His attorney, Daniel Meachum, told the newspaper, "That may or may not be in the making. That would be too premature right now. But I'm committed to helping Mike get back on his feet."
If Vick is really writing a book, you've got to wonder what he'll say. Will he fess up to his crimes, offer an apology and ask for forgiveness for having killed dogs, as he has admitted? Or will he minimize his deeds and look to blame someone else?
Frankly, I have no interest in reading anything Vick has written. If it's an autobiography, there's little about his life that would be worth publishing, even as an object lesson about how to screw up a chance at stardom.
I like the way blogger Matthew J. Darnell of Yahoo! Sports puts it: "... I assume we're talking about an autobiography here, as opposed to a novel or a well-researched edition of ‘Dog Genocide for Dummies.'"
UPDATE: It's comforting to know that the National Football League will not be so quick to forgive and forget. Commissioner Roger Goodell said that even though Vick is serving his time, there's no guarantee he'll be allowed to resume his playing career unless he demonstrates remorse.
"I think it's clear he's paid a price," Goodell said league owners' meetings in Dana Point, Calif., "but to a large extent he's going to have to demonstrate to the larger community -- not just to the NFL community and to me -- that he has remorse for what he did and that he recognizes mistakes that he made.
"Everyone makes mistakes, but he has to show that genuine remorse in his ability to be a postive influence to correct the things that he did wrong publicly."
This has been one point that I, and many others, have stressed for some time. Take responsibility and demonstrate a true sorrow for what you did. Then, and only then, will the healing process begin.
