Too Close To Home

Once in a while I hear the term "empath" thrown around in Pagan circles.  I don't feel like going into my take on the whole thing at this moment but at times I wonder if its little more than a buzzword for highly emotional people that sometimes have problems functioning in the day to day world.  I like to think that I myself for the most part am emotionally functional.  That being said there are times I wonder if I have some "empath" tendencies myself because every so often I will hear about something very bad that will happen to a random stranger and it will disturb and affect me so deeply that it's like it happened in my OWN family and I almost cease to function.  (9/11 affected me so badly I might as well have been down the street from the Trade Centers).

This past week a toddler was mauled by a pack of (pet) dogs in the very same city I live.  The boy was 18 months old.  My youngest Tornado is 18 months old so this immediately hit way too close to home for me in more ways than one.  Here's the short version of this story (source: Toddler Attacked By Family Dogs, CPS Rules Child Neglect) :

"Fort Worth, TX - Here’s a dog mauling story that has more white trash in it than my ex-wife’s family. Earlier this week, an 18-month-old boy crawled through a doggy door while his parents slept and was attacked by four mixed-breed boxers.
By the time Chance Walker Jr.’s mother was woken up by the commotion and stepped between her son and the dogs, Chance had already suffered some serious trauma to his face. Police released a 911 call made by a neighbor where you can hear Chance screaming in the background.
One neighbor described seeing Chance in his grandfather’s arms with one ear almost completely off, hanging by a piece of skin. The boy was rushed to the hospital to treat the numerous bite marks to his face and hopefully save his left ear. Once it is time for Chance to go home, it won’t be to his parents. A judge has decided that unless a suitable relative is found, he will be placed in a foster home. It’s probably for the best.
Turns out his parents, Patricia Walker and Chance Walker, are known meth users who often left Chance to play unsupervised and knew the dogs were aggressive. In fact, after the mauling, Patricia was administered a drug test and tested positive for methamphetamine and amphetamines, while Chance simply refused to take a drug test.
A nurse at the hospital where Chance Jr. is being treated told a CPS investigator that on Tuesday,  the boy’s parents would not change his diaper and left him alone in the room for hours. No surprise that CPS has been involved with this family before.
Chance and Patricia were investigated back in 2010 when they both tested positive for methamphetamine. Because CPS also felt that Chance Jr. was being physically abused by family members, Chance Jr. was placed with Patricia’s mother so the couple could get some outpatient drug treatment. They did, but would again test positive for meth. Twice.

The remaining family members aren’t much better it seems. The boy’s grandmother, 45-year-old Lena Walker, was charged with assault after attacking a neighbor in front of deputies and FOX 4′s news crew. She wasn’t happy with the neighbor’s remarks about the entire situation.
Tarrant County sheriff’s deputy said the department has dealt with several reports of dangerous dogs at the Walker home, including another child in the neighborhood that was bitten in 2010. The Walkers did not feel like they were at fault because the child, according to the affidavit,  ”should know not to run from dogs.”
Also interesting to note is that Lena Walker was one of the family members CPS felt had been abusing Chance Jr. and when an officer informed her that her grandson had been mauled, her first response was to ask why her dogs were being taken away.
It turns out they were being taken away because it is state law to do so whenever a dog tries to eat a toddler’s face. Because of the boy’s young age, they each needed to be tested for rabies as soon as possible. Unfortunately for the dogs, that test could only be conducted if they were dead.
Of course the Walkers once again do not seem to feel this was anything but an accident, not a result of them being piss-poor excuses for caregivers for either toddlers or dogs. Chase informs his Facebook friends that his son got 400 stitches, but laments the fact that CPS has come a callin’ while Lena says she regrets attacking her neighbor, but she didn’t like that she was talking trash about her dogs. On a more happy note, she did inform everyone that Chance Jr. is loved and that his ear looks like it is getting color in it."

I don't even know where to start, but I have cried numerous times this week for this precious baby.  I have read all the news stories, I have seen the videos, read the court documents.  The worst was hearing the 911 call.  His cries sounded very similar to my son's.  This is what he looked like before:

My eyes teared up just posting that.  He has that same last-stages-of-babyhood look that my youngest has.  There are many other acts of neglect that the article didn't mention: Being allowed to play outside unsupervised in a water trough, not bathing the child regularly, not changing his diapers, the parents constantly sleeping at all hours leaving him unsupervised, living in what looks to be a filthy environment, having dangerous objects such as a saw blade inside the home within reach.

I will never understand child neglect or child abuse.  I have my days where I don't feel like the best mother in the world, but then a case like this makes me realize I really do the best I can and makes me hug my kids a little tighter.

This little boy has already been released from the hospital (after at least a couple surgeries and probably many more to come) and placed in foster care.  Foster care folks (the ones who really do positive things, not the ones who make a bad situation worse and abuse the system) are my heroes!  I wish I had a heart (and resources) for foster care myself but I just do the best I can with my own kids.  People who take in children from bad situations and care for them with unconditional love are truly the embodiment of the Divine.

My prayer altar for little Chance with an amethyst for healing, a prayer stone for Courage in coping... for Chance (recovering, healing, separation anxiety, his future), for the foster families, the case workers, and yes... even for his family of origin (that they someday learn what parental love really means).  Mother Demeter (or however anyone involved see the Divine - most would say "God") is holding, healing, and guiding the baby.