There once was a young girl named Sally. Sally was a bright, cheerful, sensitive girl. She loved to swim. Sally lived in Texas with her parents where it was usually pretty hot so a nice swim was a favorite past time.
Sally loved to help her parents in the yard, planting flowers and pulling weeds in the gardens. Sally’s father was a gifted gardener and could make anything grow. The yard was always filled with flowers and the grass was always green!
Most of all, Sally loved her pets.
She grew up with many cats and dogs and even a bird or two. Sally’s parents loved animals and all pets and strays were always welcome in their home.
When Sally turned 17, she visited Nashville with her mom who happened to be a gifted songwriter. Sally instantly fell in love with the city.
Sally’s mother often made trips to Nashville to try and get her songs recorded and played on the radio. The moment Sally and her mother stepped off the plane at the Nashville Airport, Sally knew she would move there someday.
She was very excited to be grown up and start a new, grown-up life. So she saved her money and just days before her 21st birthday, because that was the goal, Sally loaded up a trailer and headed off to Nashville… all alone and by herself.
Sally was also a gifted writer. She wrote songs, books and poems. She was very blessed to have this gift of writing handed down to her.
Sally found a good job in order to pay the bills while she tried to break into the writing business in no time. She went to work for a company leasing apartment homes to people.
She enjoyed helping other people find a place they could call home and settle in. She could relate to how scary it felt to move to a new city without any friends and to start your life brand new away from your home and family. It wasn’t easy to do such a thing. But Sally’s kind smile and generous heart made people feel at ease and everyone appreciated her help and said she’d made them feel right at home.
One day, Sally got a phone call that her mother was very sick. She immediately flew back to Texas to be with her family.
Tragically her mother went home to be with God and even more tragically, her father followed behind her very soon after.
Sally was suddenly left in the world all alone with no family.
This was a very difficult time for Sally. She cried many tears and prayed many prayers.
God was with her.
Eventually, Sally felt that God was telling her that HE had created a new friend just for her to be her companion and help her during this difficult time. She needed a puppy! So, she started the hunt right away!
She searched everywhere. She went to all the animal shelters in town first. And she saw lots of adorable puppies. But they were not her puppy.
Then, she looked in the newspapers and online and even visited a few homes where they were selling puppies.
But these were not her puppy.
Sally began to get discouraged. Where was her puppy?
Just then, the sky grew dark and it started to rain. Sally figured she’d give up for the day and think about it next week but right then, she happened to be passing a pet store and a dog rescue group was outside giving away puppies!
Sally pulled into the parking lot. They had only two puppies left, a boy and a girl.
The moment she looked at the little boy puppy, with his fluffy coat, brown eyes and floppy ears, she knew THIS IS MY PUPPY.
He looked just like a teddy bear. He had a beautiful thick coat, tan and white with black tips and a black mask around his warm brown eyes. He was the cutest and sweetest thing ever!
“This is my puppy!” she exclaimed.
So, Sally took him home and named him Tico. He just looked like a Tico.
They bonded immediately and became best friends. They went on walks, car rides and Tico slept right beside her in the bed at night. He made her feel safe and loved.
Tico was a very good puppy from the beginning. He only needed a little discipline and training and caught on very quickly. He did not go to the bathroom except on his walks and he stopped chewing Sally’s shoes as soon as she communicated to him by walking him with authority that she was the pack leader.
Sally thought Tico was the best dog ever.
Sally also had a cat named Samba. And Tico’s only vice was that he really enjoyed eating Samba’s food. Sally would scold Tico each time she saw him trying to sneak over to Samba’s bowl but Tico, being very smart, would immediately act as if he had done nothing wrong and had lost interest and walk away… only to sneak back moments later.
One day, Sally was in the back of the house cleaning. She heard Tico barking very adamantly as if he was really telling something off. Sally rounded the corner of her kitchen to see Tico, nose down next to Samba’s bowl, front paws stretched out, rear up, tail wagging and barking his head off.
At that moment, Sally could almost hear Tico’s thoughts as if he were saying, “You evil cat food! Momma told me I can’t eat you and I’m not going to! Because I am a good dog and I love my momma. But you sit here enticing me and looking delicious. How dare you! I won’t do it! You can't make me!”
At that moment, Sally busted out laughing so hard… and in that moment, she realized that she had not laughed or even smiled in a very, very long time.
She had been so sad and grieving the loss of her family and had not noticed how long it had been since she laughed.
Boy, did it ever feel good to laugh again!
Her season of grief ended at that moment… all because of Tico’s adventure with the cat food.
Sally ran over and picked Tico up and gave him a big hug and kiss on his cold little nose.
“Thank you, Tico,” Sally said as she stroked his fur. “I cannot wait to see what adventures we will have together.”
To be continued...
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