For one nearly 36-hour period, we were a local animal shelter, taking in two dogs who formerly resided next door. There is a long back story which I will not delve into here.

Guess who was especially thrilled at this notion?

There are animal lovers…and there are ANIMAL LOVERS. Ruthie would be in the latter camp.

We agreed with our former neighbors to hold their two abandoned dogs for a week while they prepared to ship them to their new home.

Like I said, it’s a long back story.

Jim and Ruthie went to the Aurora shelter to pick up the dogs on Friday. The dogs were in terrible condition, so Jim went to work right away scrubbing, soaping, and snipping fur.

This man has a generous, compassionate heart.

Though we loved on the dogs by keeping them fed and watered,

and walking them,

it was clear after one night that we did not have the capacity to care for them and re-train them. So Jim and Ruthie loaded them back into the car and returned them to the Aurora shelter. There were many tears shed that day.