While coming back home from a night out with friends, a couple finds an injured dog in the middle of the street and decides to rescue it. The next morning, as they bond with their new pet, something terrible happens, but a happy ending is just around the corner.
Macy and Ezra were coming back from a visit to their friend’s house. Neither of them spoke of it, but both felt the sadness in their hearts. They enjoyed spending time with their friends, but their encounters were always bittersweet. They had been friends for a long time, but things had changed in recent years. Many of their friends had started families and had children. Others made the choice to stay childfree. But for Macy and Ezra, they were stuck somewhere in between.
They desperately wanted a baby, but they didn’t have one yet, and it didn’t look like their dream was ever going to come true. They didn’t choose not to have children, but it looked like their bodies chose for them. They couldn’t get pregnant, and just earlier in the week, they had found out there were issues with both of them. Even with medical help, it was unlikely that they would ever be able to have children. They were deflated and sad, and the last thing they wanted to do was to visit with their friends so soon after getting their news, but that was what they did.
They had a lot of fun together, but that little painful sting remained each time one of their friends hugged one of their babies, so they were quiet in the car, both lost in their own thoughts until suddenly something caught their eyes. Ezra had to brake very quickly; something ran out from the dark treeline and straight in front of them. At first, they couldn’t see what it was. Was it a coyote? Was it a small wolf? They were startled when they realized that it was a dog. It was very thin and seemed frail. It was limping, and its leg was bloody.
Macy and Ezra felt their hearts break for the little creature in the middle of the road. Neither of them could bear to see an animal in pain. They exchanged a brief glance and decided to take a closer look. The road was pretty deserted, and they could stop safely. The dog was terrified at first; it ran into the bushes and sat there, hiding and shaking. But Macy grabbed some of the leftover food they had in the car and showed it to the dog. The puppy got closer, obviously starving, and took a small bite.
The dog sat down and allowed them to pet it, but when they moved too quickly, it ran off again. The poor thing was very scared, but piece by piece, it seemed to begin trusting them. It was a big dog, and they didn’t want it to snap if it got scared, but it remained very docile. Macy wanted to bring it home so she could get that bloody leg checked out, but they were both scared to pick it up. They were worried it would freak out completely. Instead, they tried to lure it to the vehicle. They placed a large blanket over the back seat and stood next to the door, beckoning the puppy to come to them.
The dog came closer, and they placed some pieces of meat in the back seat. The pup was still hungry and easily took the bait, but with the injured paw, it struggled to get in gently. Macy and Ezra helped her up. Then the dog laid down on the blanket, and with a heavy sigh, it fell asleep. It was like it understood that it was safe, but they were still very worried about it and decided to take it to a 24-hour emergency vet to be checked out. The vet had interesting news and bad news.
The interesting part was that the pup was a very young female but was expected to grow quite a bit in time. The bad news was that her leg was broken, and she had bruises and small cuts all over her body. The vet cleaned her up and also set her leg. She was also terribly dehydrated and weak, but it was nothing that a bit of good food and a lot of rest couldn’t help. She had no chip for them to find a family and didn’t look like she had received a lot of love and kindness in her life. They would search for her family for a while, but none of them had much hope that they would ever find anyone to claim her.
Then came the big question: did they want to give the dog up to the vet for her to go to a shelter, or did they want to take her home with them? Ezra and Macy gave each other a look and communicated in that silent way that close couples can do. They always believed that they would get a dog after they had children, but now that their dream of a family was so unsure, they might as well give a home to this animal that so desperately needed it. They had plenty of love to give her. They called her Lola and got some supplies from the vet. She was cleaned up and had all the medicine she would need, but they needed a dog bed, leash, harness, dog food, and loads of other things for her to feel truly at home.
The dog seemed a lot more relaxed around the couple now. She happily walked with them to their vehicle, despite her slight limp, and got in without hesitation. Then they took her home. It was late, and she went potty one last time. They put the blankets from the car in her new dog bed. They wanted her to understand that it was hers and that she could relax there. The dog was exhausted, and along with that, she had been given medicine at the vet’s office, so after having some more food, she curled up on her dog bed and quickly fell asleep.
The next morning, Ezra woke up because he felt something staring at him, and he opened his eyes to find himself staring at Lola’s face right next to the bed. The polite dog waited for him to wake up, but it seemed she needed to go out. It was a pretty great morning. Ezra took her out into the backyard, and when she was done, she ran back inside like she owned the place forever.
She rushed up to the bedroom and stood in front of the bed, now looking at Macy. Macy looked at the dog with one eye open, then she lifted the blanket, and Lola jumped on the bed. She seemed to be quickly getting accustomed to the good life. That was probably a good thing since the couple was quickly getting attached to her too. They all napped some more, but soon they realized that the dog was probably getting hungry. They still needed to fatten her up; she was very thin and weak, and she had to get stronger.
After lunch, the couple came to sit on the porch to let her play. They wanted to bond with her. Lola was the sweetest dog they had ever met, and they were glad that they had decided to take her in. Perhaps her love and devotion could heal their broken hearts, they thought. Macy and Ezra were discussing the ways they wanted to train her when suddenly something unexpected happened. Lola’s ears perked up as if she’d heard something interesting, then she turned her back to her owners and took off as fast as a lightning bolt. She jumped the fence, and she started running away.
Macy and Ezra were shocked. They didn’t even think Lola could jump that high, even more so now that she was injured. They ran to the gate and looked left and right, trying to find her. They just hoped she didn’t get too far. Lola had been with them for such a short time, but they had already grown attached to the dog. They searched the road and then checked an alley at the back of the houses. There were loads of dumps in that alley, and they were shocked and relieved to see the dog there. She was sitting next to a big box and pawing at it.
Ezra chuckled. He thought that she was still hungry and had run off to check out the interesting scent of food coming from the alley. But when they got closer, they heard faint sounds from the box. Lola was looking at it with apprehension but allowed them to come closer. It was like she was trying to protect whatever was inside the box. They opened it up, and they could not believe their eyes. A tiny baby was inside the box. It was one of the smallest babies that Macy had ever seen. He was crying softly, but his lips were blue. He was clearly freezing.
They couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Had the baby been there all night long, they wondered. They didn’t know, but instinct started to kick in. Macy picked the baby up and placed him inside her shirt to hold him against her chest. He was so tiny and cold. Skin-to-skin contact could only do him good. While she was looking after the baby, Ezra phoned for help. The ambulance service was there in record time and took over care for the baby. It broke Macy’s heart to hand him over, but he needed way more care than they could provide. He had pneumonia from his night in the cold and was very sick. However, they would be allowed to visit the baby at the hospital if the couple wanted to come and give him more attention. Then everyone would be happy to allow it.
But first, they had to take care of their hero dog. If Lola hadn’t reacted as quickly as she did, the baby wouldn’t have been able to hang on for much longer. But in doing so, she had put herself in danger. Ezra and Macy took her back to the vet. Jumping over the fence had injured her again, and they had to get her foot patched back up. They also made sure that she hadn’t gotten any other injuries in the process. Then they went over to the hospital and spent some time with the baby boy.
But how did a newborn come to be next to the dumpsters? The police were involved, and they could get all the camera footage in the area. They wanted to figure out what happened, and what they saw was completely heartbreaking. The footage showed a teenage girl walking along the road with a box in her hand. She went inside the alley and came out without the box. Then she walked away. They could see her wiping tears from her face, but her remorse wasn’t enough for them to condone her actions.
They tracked her with traffic lights and even with house cameras until they could find where she was going. They went straight to her home, and the girl opened the door. She was deathly pale and didn’t seem well. They tried speaking to her, and then she collapsed. The next moment, her father came home, and he was surprised to see how ill she was. They had to rush the girl to the same hospital where the baby was, and that’s where they found out that she was hemorrhaging. She had given birth the day before, but she hadn’t gotten proper medical care, and she was losing a lot of blood.
The investigation was paused until she got all the help she needed, but in the meantime, Macy and Ezra went back to visit the baby multiple times a day, usually around feeding time. They would hold him and sing to him. Then they would go home and make sure that Lola was taken care of. The couple knew that they were getting way too attached to the baby, but they couldn’t help it. He needed as much love as they could give him. They would think of their own feelings later on.
They only went home to look after Lola. Slowly, the baby got better, and his biological mother was also getting better in another room. She started crying the moment she opened her eyes and saw her father sitting next to her bed. She was a frightened child, and she had made a big mistake. Her dad was a single parent, and when she realized she was expecting a baby, she was terrified of telling him and breaking his heart. To avoid that conversation, she just ignored the pregnancy for months. She was small, and no one even noticed her pregnancy while she wore baggy clothing.
She was home alone when she went into labor and had the baby. Then she decided that she could hide it even longer. She took her baby and dumped him in the trash. She had hoped that someone would find him eventually and give him the love and care he deserved, but she wasn’t thinking clearly and didn’t realize she was severely endangering him. She was too scared to ask for advice and too weak to go back for him. She would face some charges but would receive counseling instead of jail time. She needed help, not punishment.
When she was feeling better, the girl and her father decided to go and see the baby. They walked in on Macy and Ezra holding him. At first, they thought they had the wrong room. It looked like they had walked in on a normal family. But then they found out that this was the couple who followed their dog and saved the baby. The girl looked at her child, and all she could feel was sad.
She still couldn’t keep him. Her father worked hard enough to give her everything she needed, and she was nowhere near ready to be a mother. Looking at Macy and Ezra, she knew what she needed to do. She spoke to her father, and they spoke to the couple. They would check the family out, but if they turned out to be the good people they looked like, they would allow them to adopt the baby. They went through home checks with a social worker, and soon after, they brought the baby home as his foster parents.
Around a year later, Macy, Ezra, Lola, and their baby boy Keanu headed to the court to make it official. When they came out, they were finally a family. Their entire friend group was there to celebrate with them. They all got to support Macy and Ezra now, just as they always supported them.
The family all came together in a strange way. If they had never rescued Lola on the road that night, then they probably would never have found the baby in the dumpster. But it was the love they had for each other that made them a family, and that would remain for the rest of their lives. What a beautiful ending.
