I was in nursing school my husband was out to sea. I have 3 small children under the age of 5.Boys of course. I would drive by the animal shelter yearning for an animal. Why I would want one more thing to add to my list is beyond me. I was thinking the boys could use a dog to grow up with. Knowing all the while it would be me to taking care of this mutt. My husband will be home in less than 4 month, so I talk myself out of stopping by the animal shelter. I will wait for him to come home. This animal is going to be part of his life. So I wait, I refuse to tell anyone about my idea they will tell me I am crazy. Like I don't know this already. Hubby is coming home less than a month away. I stop by the animal shelter with one more week to go I find nothing. My husband comes home. I tell him that I want a new puppy, something that I can take care of. It is better than a new baby. We agree to tell the boys about our new addition to the family. So off we go to the animal shelter. We look all around starting with the puppies. They are cute but most of them are all ready taken. I guess everyone had the same idea as me. My husband starts to look at the older dogs and the really big dogs. You know they have their very own hall. Guess it pays to be big. Me and the boys look around we spot this cross between a Saint Bernard and Coker Spaniel. Very odd looking dog she had one light brown spot on one of her eye and a white coat. This dog needed to learn how to walk on a leash. But after all I used to train greyhounds I can train this dog to walk o n a leash. As we put this dog up we have to leave the visiting room. When we open the door there is this small yellow dog. I swear she was not there a week ago. She appears sitting at the front of the cage with her font legs tuck close to her body and her head held low. I said stop let's look at this one! The staff helps to get her out. We are in the visiting room and my boys have hold a tail an ear and one has his finger in her nose. This animal does nothing but a small wag of her tail and as she looks up at me I say "welcome home Lexi Lou". She is put up and they tell us we have to come back on Sunday to get her. They boys could hardly wait. My oldest son would tell anyone listening we have a yellow dog coming to sleep with me. On Saturday my husband gets a call. This animal that I am so sure of is infected with heart worms. The shelter tells my husband if we don't want her they will destroy her. I will be honest I had to think about this. If we take her after her treatment she would have remain calm and no running around for 6 weeks. Can my boys understand that she is a sick dog? So after a long talk with my husband we decided to keep her. We go to the pet store and buy a cage. We put in lots of blanket so she has a bed. We tell the boys that mommy is a nurse. Lexi Lou is a sick doggie and you all need to be mommy's little helpers. We have to let Lexi Lou sleep in the cage so that she can get better and this is her special leash that she needs to be taken out with. So week after week Lexi would lie in her cage and the boys would pat her through the metal that surrounds her. She would walk on her pink leash with her head held high. We as family would take her to the vet visits. She would have EKG's done and a few more shot that would make her tired. She would be so good not even a whimper. She would go out for walks and one day we let the leash off she ran and ran and ran. We rescued her but somehow I think she rescued us!