On a wet, cold night last January, My wife and I were taking our son to his apartment in a nearby city. Later in the evening, after depositing him, my wife would drop me off at work, and she would go home. Long, long story short, my son forgot his house keys, and that involved, of course turning around, and returning the twenty miles to our house, geting his keys and starting all over again. While helping him search for his keys in our home, I happened to grab an old sweatshirt that was in my closet. I hadn’t worn the thing in years, I only kept it as it was a momento from a trip to Paris, France when I was in the Air Force. Anyway, we all piled back in the car, keys and old sweatshirt in hand. this go-around, they would drop me at work, (I’m a Police Officer), and my wife would run my son home.

Upon pulling into the department parking lot, we noticed an old cardboard box laying on it’s side in the middle of the lot. We didn’t pay much attention to it, I gathered my gear and headed for the office. A moment later my wife screamed “John!!” I turned to see my son cradling a small, shivering Toy Fox Terrier puppy, cold and wet, but happily licking his face. My son asked if I had a blanket in the car. I did not, but I did have, yep, that old sweatshirt. We dried her off as best we could, and wrapped her small body in the rest of the shirt and with the car heater, she warmed up in no time. There was no question that my son would keep her. Once he brought her to his home, his fiancee also fell in love with her.

They considered several names; ‘Rainey’ (for obvious reasons), almost settled on ‘Hope’ since they had been having a hard time financially, and this little pup was a bright spot…They finally settled on ‘Angel’, and that she was. My sons’ best nights were during those cold winter months, snuggling on the couch with his finacee and Angel in between them. Fast forward to May. My son, a member of the Air National Guard has volunteered for duty in the Middle East. We moved him out of his apartment and back into our home. Angel fit right in with our two Labs, and quickly made herself at home and moved into not only our home, but our hearts as well. While my son was overseas I spoiled his pup, as I do mine, and we all became quite close. For the next few months, whenever I e-mailed or hand-wrote my son, Angel was right there. She even sent him a letter or two…ok,ok, I typed them, but we knew what she wanted to say. My son returned safe and sound in September, and began to pick up his life. He began a decent job, enrolled in the Police Academy and began to make wedding plans (eek! they want to get married in Hawaii…I’m a cop, not a stock broker!).

While I was working special duty in a high crime area one early this month, my son called me. Not much rattles him. He saw combat, and has lost pets, tragically before…I answered my phone and heard, “Dad, Angel’s dead.” So was my son’s voice when he said those words. My son and his girl were leaving the driveway of our house and found her in the street. We do not let our dogs run, they are house dogs and are always leashed. Angel had escaped outside before, but never left the yard. To this day, we have no idea how she got out. We buried her the next morning, the whole family in tears. She was ten months old, and really the light of our home. When people heard of our loss, many said, “Sorry your dog got killed”. I always replied, “She wasn’t our dog…she was our pal.” I tried to send a picture, couldn’t get it to attach. Thank you for your time, and this great area of your website.

Johnny from Ohio