When Peter Met Annie
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Magic of Dogs
By Holly Green

When an eighty-five-pound mammal licks your tears away, then tries to sit on your lap, it's hard to feel sad.
~Kristan Higgins

It was June in Indiana — tornado season — with countless watches and warnings that, in the end, would most likely amount to nothing. My co-workers and I had become pretty adept at ignoring weather forecasts, so we didn't pay this one any particular attention. It was just one more storm on its way through. But then the city's weather siren began to blare, and it got us worrying.

I was working as an office nurse at a family practice near downtown Indianapolis in an area of the city well past its prime. Our medical building had been erected on a vacant lot three years before and looked out of place, with its large, modern picture windows forming two sides of the waiting room. (Keep reading)