I worked my usual overnight last night, coming in my perfunctory 5 minutes late, and was greeted by a happy, tail wagging, big black dog in one of the bottom cages.

"Awww...." I said to myself.

I stepped closer to check him out and saw the clipboard sitting on the corner of the x-ray table, the scarlet letter pronouncing his impending death for all to see.

I sighed to myself. This wasn't the usual donor day, but we had just used both bags of canine blood the week previous to save the life of a 10 year old Great Pyranees with a baseball sized hemangionsarcoma mass on his intestine.

If this adorable boy was going to be dispatched to the sweet hereafter, I was going to at least make his last few hours on earth comfortable. I raided the refrigerator and came upon a coworker's stash of cheese cubes. Said coworker, who will remain nameless, is considered by the majority of employees at my work to be heartless and just generally callous with the lives of the living creatures entrusted to her care. Her cheese was a sacrifice I was willing to make.

The cheese cubes were snarfed down within seconds and the tail never stopped wagging. He looked at me with his big pleading chocolate eyes and I called Michelle to complain.

"We have a donor dog," I began. She responded with her usual sigh and a few choice words that echoed my feelings exactly.

When she arrived at 6 pm, we took him out (now named Harley) and drew blood. He just sat there on the floor, happy as could be, letting me poke his cephalic veins while he tried to lick all the skin off of Michelle's face. His blood tests all came back normal and clean. While the seconds counted down, Michelle and I got more and more attached and less and less willing to let this handsome boy meet his untimely death.

"We've got to be able to do something," Michelle said, disheartened.

Now, lucky for me (and Harley!) one of my close friends, for all intents and purposes, the shelter manager at the local Humane Society. I called her up, spent a few minutes on the phone with her (answering the usual questions - neutered, good with food/touching, any obvious behavioral problems, etc.) and was informed that, as long as I checked with Animal Control, we would be able to take him on Monday.

Luckily for us, about 5 minutes after I hung up the phone our boss walked in. I was kind of nervous about asking her, since we only have the ability to get so many blood donor dogs a week, but she was all for it provided everyone was happy at all three of our places of business.

Michelle hopped on the phone with an employee that also works at Animal Control, got the skinny on our dear boy (abandoned with his brother - the owners had no money to take care of them anymore), got the ok to hold him there until my friend could pick him up on Monday. The Dr. on duty neutered him free of charge, we still got a bag of blood from him (with no side effects - just the same as a human donating) and the rest is history!

High fives were slapped, trust me on that one.

I dropped him off at Animal Control this morning and the hardest part was leaving him, watching those sad chocolate eyes wonder why another family was abandoning him. I wish I could explain that we saved his life and that he was going to have a GREAT chance at having a wonderful family. It's enough that I know that.

And, of course, I brought my daughter and she LOVED him and he loved her (his previous family had little girls her age). She cried this morning after we left and told me, on her way into her classroom, that she was going to cry again a lot today. I feel bad for her, on the selfish level that makes parents never want to see their children hurt, but I'm really proud that I've raised such a compassionate kid!

The best part of this chapter is, because of our (Michelle and myself) empathetic nature and motivation to see a happier end to this story, his brother is also getting another chance at life.

Let me just tell you, I'm BEAMING with pride.

Here's our handsome man, by the way...





Just remember, nothing is ever set in stone and it NEVER hurts to try. :)