Special Angels  
 

"Sometimes you are near angels,"  Henry told Wiggle, "and you don't even know it."  Henry had learned that some people, just by the way they treat those in need, are really special angels.

"It's not that they have wings and halos and flap all around like in cartoons," he told Wiggle, "I'm talking about angels in reality." 

Reality was something Henry knew only too well.  Henry remembered the awful time in his life before he had any place to call home.
After being so lost and hungry and afraid roaming through Tennessee, Henry had found his way to a farm.  He hung around there for days making friends with the animals. Some of them would share their food and water.  Some of them were mean and chased him out, making fun of how scabby and mangy poor Henry looked. After all, they belonged there, and Henry was an outsider who was hurt and funny looking.  It was easy for the mean animals to tease him.  Weak and sad, Henry stayed and tried to make friends with whoever would be nice to him. He didn't have the strength to move on if he wanted to.

Someone else knew Henry was there, and she wasn't very happy about it. The upright who owned the farm wanted Henry gone.  She called a lady named Ingrid and told her "Get this ugly, mangy thing out of here before I shoot him myself!" she demanded. 

Ingrid knew this poor creature was in trouble and she told the woman to bring him right to the vet.  She would meet them there.  "I was so scared of being shot," Henry told Wiggle, who could hardly believe her ears. 

"I thought the lady on the phone was going to help me, but when I got to the vet, he took one glance at how horrible I looked and told his helper that no one would ever want me, they were going to just PUT ME TO SLEEP.  But the technician was the first angel I met.  She was so pretty with long dark brown fur.  Her name was Monika and she told the vet NOT to have me PUT TO SLEEP, she knew that Ingrid WOULD care about me.

Ingrid got there just in the nick of time.  She was the next angel that I met that day. She refused to let that vet touch me.  She saw how hot and tired and itchy I was.  She got me all the medicine I needed and she brought me to her very own home." 

Henry showed Wiggle the pictures in his very special album that he kept with him at all times. No matter what adventures Henry's had in life, he would never forget them.