The Memory.

I woke up with a memory that keeps drifting through my thoughts. It comes and it goes, but it asks to be remembered. I luxuriate in the emotions of it because it still carries a charge, twenty years later.

In the 1990’s I was working as a managing coordinator for a veterinary referral hospital on the seacoast of New Hampshire. Our board-certified surgeon specialists did the work few other DVMs could. From miles around we received the most difficult cases, the seemingly impossible, the heart-breakers. There was nothing they couldn’t do and their work was expensive. It was an affluent area and money was rarely an obstacle. 

The Catastrophe. 

On this day, a young golden retriever puppy presented with two shattered femurs. She had escaped the yard when their child left the gate open and was pulverized by a Ram truck on a busy road close by. She was alive and presented wagging her tail, happy to see us. She wore a big smile on her face as if to say, “Why the long faces? What’s the fuss?”

Her back legs were destroyed.

$5000.00 was the lowest estimate, which meant the actual repair could go higher than that.

The Heartbreak. 

They were devastated. She was only a puppy with her whole life to live. They came out into the lobby to make a call to their credit card company, asking to raise their limit. Declined. They burst into tears, both of them. Although there’s devotion and love involved, Veterinary medicine requires payment for services. Without it, there would be no door to open in the morning.

If they couldn’t afford the surgery, she’d have to be euthanized. There were no shelters who would take her with such severe injuries, no Golden Retriever rescue groups, they were declined for CareCredit, and they had no pet insurance. It was one of the details of the job that killed me on a daily basis. 

Through tears, they decided they had no choice, and asked to be alone with her. They went into an exam room to say their goodbyes. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place. We were all sick to our stomachs.

The Angel. 

And that’s when a perfect stranger, waiting for his dog’s sutures to be removed, nose buried within the Boston Globe, seemingly oblivious to the emotionally charged morning, calmly stood up and approached the counter. He slid his credit card to the receptionist and told her to charge it for $5000.00. Speechless, she stood like a gasping fish out of water, holding the plastic. “Please hurry,” he said. “I don’t want them to know it was me. I wish to remain anonymous.” There was no emotion on his face.

In the face of such wild generosity, the owner of the hospital decided to absorb the expense if the costs exceeding $5000.00.  

The receptionist ran the card and the stranger quietly left with his dog. I was blessed with the task of entering that exam room to inform the family that their guardian angel just ambled through, granting them a full life with their cherished puppy. The power of that moment was indescribable. Absolutely electric. 

The Gift. 

I wonder if they thought about that man every time that golden retriever wagged her tail, licked their face, chased a tennis ball? I wonder if he truly was a man at all, or an angel who walks this earth. Is there even a distinction? Sometimes you really can’t tell. I wonder if this experience changed their life? Something like that, at just the right time, can alter a person’s entire worldview. Did they ever have the opportunity to pay it forward?   

This is my intention for our world. The spiritual masters keep landing on the same message in this modern world–they tell us to see it, believe it, dream it to life. I’m dreaming a reality where we all help each other, not fight each other. I want us to open the door to a world where our hearts lead, so we can reach higher and do better. I’m asking the energy of this man to guide my way today. There’s a reason he walked into my memories this morning.

You know, maybe he was an angel, but none of this requires a miracle. This isn’t behavior limited to the angels. All it took was for one human to choose generosity that day. 

All it took was one good person. 

Much Love, 

Kristy 

P.S. ~ Know somebody who could use a lift today? Please feel free to forward this article.