Angel
Touched By an Angel
It was a wet and dreary afternoon when Kari Ryan and her husband first saw Angel. "We had been visiting with my aunt when I noticed this poor little dog shivering outside," says Kari. The animal-loving couple knew they couldn't just drive away, so Kari hopped out of their jeep and walked slowly toward the dog, crouched down and spoke softly to her. "She just looked me in the eyes and whimpered—then she came right into my arms!"
As soon as they got home, the Ryans closely examined the dog. "We could see she was skinny and terribly matted. She had bloody ears and was just plain filthy." The couple immediately got to work—bathing and brushing and snipping away as many hair mats as possible. "When we were done," explains Kari, "we had about three pounds of hair in the trash!"
The next day the trio made a visit to the vet. While there, the receptionist asked for the dog's name. "On impulse I said ‘Angel,’" explains Kari. "That is probably what she would have become had we not found her!"
Within a few weeks Angel's coat was growing back and she was gaining weight, but there was one small problem. The Ryans already had three dogs, and worried that four might be too much. "We had a nice family with three kids come and visit her," says Kari. "It was so hard to let her go, but we thought we had found the perfect home."
The very next morning, Kari woke to hear a car pulling into the driveway. "I looked out the window and couldn't believe it," she says. "The family was dumping Angel over the fence into our backyard! I ran outside trying to catch them, but they sped away."
Angel, of course, couldn't have been happier. "She was climbing all over me and kissing me," says a tearful Kari. "She knew she was back where she belonged and at that point we did, too—our wayward Angel was home."