‘There’s Always God’s Plan’ Says Trashman after Dog He Brought from Dumpster Saves His Daughter – Story of the Day

Lenny brought an abandoned puppy home as a gift to his seven-year-old daughter. Little did he know that the puppy had the power to save the little girl's life.

"How could I let my daughter down for the second year in a row?" Lenny wiped his tear with the sleeve of his uniform.

"Really, Lenny? Is this where you want to have your emotional breakdown? Look around."

Lenny was sitting in the middle of heaps of garbage and swarms of unusually quiet insects hovering around. Perhaps they were scavenging, too — looking for little treats for their offsprings back home.

'Unlike me, they will actually manage to take something home for their kids.'

"Oh, for God's sake, stop staring into the distance and carry this pile of dry waste to the other side!"

Lenny picked up the pile of garbage with his blackened, greasy gloves and started wobbling through the heaps of waste to the other side of the neighborhood dumping yard.

He almost dropped the pile carelessly, but a slight, sharp squeal jolted him back to caution.

It was a puppy. It had been hiding under an old cardboard sheet, looking Lenny straight in the eye.

"Hi, little boy! Where's your mama?" Lenny looked around for any sign of a dog. At the same time, his colleague Joe waited in the garbage truck, shaking his head at Lenny's predictably sentimental behavior.

"Lenny, just leave it alone. We're running late. You don't want to lose this job as well, do you?"

His friend was right. He couldn't afford to lose this job. Not with the medical bills piling up at home. And especially not after what had happened last time.

Lenny remembered how he had sacrificed endless nights of sleep to pull in an extra shift at the warehouse. He even ignored a terrible knee injury that had built up for weeks, just so he could keep up his attendance.

Except this one time, where he had to be rushed to the hospital, crying in excruciating pain.

One fine day, he was called in along with a dozen other workers, fed a slice of cake and a cup of coffee and unapologetically laid off, citing an 'executive decision.'

Lenny thought about putting the dog back down for a second. But he couldn't let the shivering, whimpering, scrawny little being in his arms go. He looked around briefly once again and carried him along.

"Papa! What's in this box?"

Janet was trying hard not to open it without her father's permission. Janet's mother was serving dinner in the kitchen, but she was also paying attention from the corner of her eye.

"That is a late birthday present for you, baby."

"MAY I open it?" Janet was proud that she remembered to use the word 'may' instead of 'can,' just like Lenny had taught her yesterday.

Lenny smiled but stopped her. "Three guesses first!"

"Is it a…teddy bear?" Janet said, studying the box.

"Nope. Much better."

"A dollhouse?" Janet's face lit up as she remembered what she had asked for her seventh birthday.

"No, sweetheart. Even better! Why don't you take a closer look?"

Janet leaned in and heard strange whimpers, and through the little hole in the box, she saw something move.

"It's a puppy!" Janet opened the box and lifted the little creature, rubbing her cheek to its face.

"This is the best-est birthday present ever, Daddy. Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Lenny's exhaustion and guilt melted in that warm hug from his little girl and an appreciating smile from his wife.

It had been a week, and Lenny was in awe of how Janet and the puppy had bonded.

"Jimmy and Janet! Janet and Jimmy! Best friends forever…." Lenny's little girl would sing to the little canine as she bathed him, brought him water, fed him bread, and skipped around the house with him.

Your kindness will always come back to bless you.

In the midst of the harsh struggle to find a stable job, pay the bills, and take care of Janet's medical condition, watching her happy was a silver lining for Lenny.

One such day, Janet's mother was out working at the grocery store. Lenny was at home and fell asleep on the porch while Janet played hide and seek with Jimmy.

Suddenly, Jimmy started barking non-stop. This wasn't a friendly bark. He wasn't teasing Janet or getting annoyed by her fussing over him.

'Why does he keep looking at me and then at Janet like that?' Lenny wondered. 'What is he trying to say?'

Within seconds, something terrible happened. Janet collapsed onto the grass and started convulsing.

'This is the third time this month,' Lenny thought as he ran to Janet, holding her and calming her with his words as Janet went through another epileptic seizure.

Lenny called his colleague and rushed Janet to the hospital.

"The dog was barking endlessly, you said?"

The attending doctor was taking notes.

"Yes, doctor. Could that have somehow caused the seizure?"

If it had, Lenny had already decided that he would take the dog away to a shelter. He couldn't risk Janet going through something this severe again, even though it would break her heart to part with Jimmy.

The doctor smiled.

"On the contrary, I think your dog may have saved your daughter's life."

"What?! How?"

"Jimmy appears to be a seizure-alert dog. Dogs like him have a natural ability to pick up on early signs of an upcoming seizure - and their barking is a way of signaling the owner about it."

"You mean to say that Jimmy had been alerting me of the seizure, not causing it?"

"Keep an eye out for this happening again. You will find that Jimmy is trying to get your attention minutes before Janet collapses."

The following month, it happened twice again. Once, when Lenny was just about to leave for work. And again, when they were about to sit at the dinner table.

Each time, Jimmy broke into the same alarming barking spree. As soon as Lenny recognized this peculiar signal, he rushed to prepare everything necessary to treat and calm the convulsions that were about to happen to Janet.

The third time, after helping Janet overcome the seizure and caring for her the whole day, Lenny hugged Jimmy and broke down crying.

"Little buddy, I love you. I'm sorry I yell at you sometimes. I'm sorry I don't hug you enough. The truth is, I hadn't planned on bringing you home that day. But there's always God's plan. And now I know you are a part of it."

In the years that followed, Jimmy and Janet grew up around each other, learning lessons of love, kindness, communication, and care.

And Lenny never forgot to be grateful for the angel in furry disguise.

What can we learn from this story?

• Your kindness will always come back to bless you. Lenny didn't know this then, but by helping nurse an abandoned puppy to health, he had set the wheels of kindness in motion.
• Adopt a pet if you can. Many innocent animals do not have a home. Having pets can teach children valuable life lessons like responsibility, compassion, and patience. Even if Jimmy hadn't saved Janet's life, he had already filled the family with joy.

Share this story with your friends. It might brighten their day and inspire them.

If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a 3-year-old girl who thought there was a monster under her bed. Well, it was the cutest monster ever!

This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone's life. If you would like to share your story, please send it to info@amomama.com.