Puppy Love

 
 allwomenstalk


Chicken Soup for The Soul
 

The young boy who had been wearing a steel brace on his left leg for the last four months walked through the front door of his home with a newly purchased puppy in his arms.  


 The dog didn’t have a hip socket and, when placed on the floor, it walked with a serious limp.  


The boy’s selection of a physically challenged puppy intrigued his parents, for he had been down-and-out.  But with his new companion at his side, they sensed a newly revitalized spirit of hope and enthusiasm emerging from his soul.

The next day the young boy and his mom went to see a veterinarian to find out how he could best help his little dog.   


The doctor explained that if he stretched and massaged his puppy’s leg every morning and then walked with him at least one mile per day, the muscles around his missing hip would eventually strengthen to the point of no pain and less of a limp.

Although the dog whimpered and barked out his discomfort, and the boy winced and hassled with his own leg brace, for the next two months they religiously kept to their rehabilitation regimen.   


By the third month they were walking three miles every morning before school began and they were both walking without pain.

One Saturday morning when returning from their workout, a cat leaped out of the bushes and startled the dog.  Breaking loose of the leash, the dog darted into oncoming traffic.   


With a speeding truck only seconds away, the boy ran into the street, dove for his dog, and rolled into the gutter. He was too late. 


The dog was hit and bleeding profusely from the mouth. As the boy lay there crying and hugging his dying dog, he noticed that his own leg brace had broken off.

With no time to worry about himself, he sprang to his feet, picked up his dog, cuddled it close to  him and started for home.   


The dog quietly barked, giving him hope and turning the boy’s jog into an all-out, adrenaline sprint.

His mother rushed him and his suffering pup to the pet hospital. As they anxiously waited to see if his dog would survive the surgery, he asked his mother why he could now walk and run.

“You had osteomyelitis, which is a disease of the bone,” she said. “It weakened and crippled your leg, which caused you to limp in severe pain.  Your brace was for support.  It wasn’t necessarily a permanent condition if you were willing to fight through the pain and hours of therapy.  You responded well to the medication, but you always resisted our encouragement for physical therapy, and your father and I didn’t know what to do.   


The doctors told us you were about to lose your leg. 


Then you brought home your puppy and seemed to understand his needs.  Ironically, as you were helping him, you were actually helping yourself to strength then and grow.”

 

Just then the operating room door slowly opened. Out walked the veterinarian with a smile on his face. “Your dog is going to make it,” he said.

And, the boy learned that when you lose yourself, you find yourself.  It is more blessed to give, then receive.