Monday of last week started with a gentleman bringing us a stray beagle. She wasn’t just an “ordinary” stray – she was only fourteen weeks at most and she had a broken leg. She was found wandering down the road, limping. However, as sad as she was with the broken leg and scared as any puppy would be, her little spirit shone through and her tail never stopped wagging.

She presented us with a dilemma – even having the xrays to determine the extent of the damage was an expensive endeavor for a nonprofit. Our “Angel Fund” coffers for just such an emergency were so low that we knew the medical attention she would need was beyond our financial ability. One look at her sweet face and wagging tail and we all knew that we had to try and make it right for her and so we asked the community. This is where the “good” came out of a bad situation.

The newspaper covered her story. The television news covered her story. We set it out to the larger community on Facebook. And the response has been overwhelming. Our sadness and frustration with one person’s ill treatment of a defenseless puppy has, this week, been replaced with a gratitude and appreciation of the goodness of a greater number of people. The outpouring of concern and financial support has reinforced for us that good can come of bad things. It has reinforced as well that there truly are more good people than bad.

We want to extend a heart felt thank you to all that have donated to the “Baby Beagle” cause. There are the young fellows who donated their allowance, the staff collections at several businesses, the far flung donations from California, North Carolina and Massachusetts and all the many, many folks of all ages and donation levels to whom we are grateful. So many of you have helped give a young puppy a chance for a good life and have given the staff and volunteers of the Charlevoix Area Humane Society a great gift of faith in our community of humans. Thank you.