On Sept. 7 I received an email from Mary Ann Merrill, a good friend who heads the SAP

(Service Animal Project).

I support this program wholeheartedly, whereas certain dogs that meet the criteria are taken from the shelter and trained for soldiers who have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I have seen the results of some of their successes and I’m here to tell you that the SAP program has taken my Best Medicine series to a whole new level.

Needless to say, I admire these people tremendously and am honored to consider Mary Ann a friend.

The email showed me Snickers, a 1 ½ year old Boxer-Pitt who had been starved to near death. The next photo showed me this brindle beauty and how he looked after some care and food. All of this occurred in a county outside of our district. Snickers was taken from his owner and, after a long drawn out case, the owner was fined $1,000. Now that the case was settled, Snickers had a day, two at the most, to be adopted or he’d be put to sleep.

I called Mary Ann, who pleaded with me to help with this matter.

“Mary Ann, you’re breaking my heart,” I told her, “Do you have any idea how often I hear of cases like this?”

“They’re going to put that beautiful boy down, Lennie.”

I could sense the sob deep in her throat.

“I saw the photos, Mary Ann and Lord knows I don’t want that to happen but I don’t know if we have time.”

“We can try, can’t we Lennie?”

Relenting I said, “Yes, sweetheart, we most certainly can try.”