God Bless Us, Everyone!

I took Mr. Divot to the vet yesterday. He has to get all sorts of shots so we can board him while we're in Haiti. I guess it's fitting - now we're all sorts of immunized at our house! The vet was quite behind so I sat in the waiting room for quite a while. I could hear the girls at the desk talking about a dog that had been hit by a car the night before and had "shattered his ankle and foot". It was apparent from the conversation that the family really didn't know what to do. They didn't have the funds for the surgery and were trying to decide if they should amputate the dog's leg or put the dog down. They called with questions a few times while I was waiting. It's hard to have something like that happen at Christmas.

The next interesting thing was the arrival of a gentleman I will call Harley Biker Dude. He came in - full beard down to his chest and hair to his shoulders - in his jacket. The ensemble was completed with boots and a beer belly. You can picture him, I'm sure. When he walked in, I immediately though, 'Rottweiler". You just tend to guess people's pets from their appearance. Imagine my surprise when he walked over and picked out a bag of very expensive specialty cat food. He snugged the small bag on his hip and went over to wait his turn in line.

I was very intrigued by Harley Biker Dude. As I watched him, it became apparent that he knew a lot about animals. He asked a woman how old her Pekingese was. I was surprised he correctly identified the breed. Thanks to my years of attending dog shows with my parents as a child, I of course knew immediately that it was a cross between a dog and a toilet brush with a gland problem, as my dad would say. There's just something amusing about Harley Biker Dude saying, 'Pekingese".

Anyway, he got to the front of the line and while the girl was calculating his total, he started asking very detailed questions about this injured dog. She was confused about how Harley Biker Dude would even know anything about the dog but he kept drilling her for information. She finally told him that they weren't sure what they were going to do with the dog. He asked what their options were and she told him. When she said, "surgery, amputation or euthanasia" he became quite agitated and said, 'Don't do anything. I'll get right back to you."

About 10 minutes later, there was a phone call. It was Mr. and Mrs. Harley Biker Dude. It turns out they are the neighbors of the family with the injured pet and they couldn't bear to see the children lose their pet at Christmas. They told the vet that they would pay up to $2500 for the dog's surgery on the condition that the vet never tell the family who was paying for the surgery. "Just call them and tell them the surgery is taken care of and set it up."

Not only was I impressed by their generosity, concern and kindness but I was reminded how often we "judge a book by its cover". I wouldn't have pegged Harley Biker Dude for a Pekingese lover. I also didn't expect him to be willing to so selflessly give so much money for his neighbors. He reminded me to try a little hard to be good and a bit more "Tiny Tim" and less "Scrooge" this year.

Thank you, Harley Biker Dude, wherever you are.