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Stranger Calls Number on Side of SUV Spotted in Traffic Jam. Has Unusual Request

By Amanda Thomason February 1, 2018 at 12:10pm

Traffic is annoying. The more of it you’ve experienced, the more you realize just how terrible it is. But for one man, traffic was life-changing.

A woman was driving her SUV — or, she was trying to. But they’d been in a jam for about 15 minutes and had settled in for the long haul.

While she was stopped, her phone started ringing. The man on the other end spoke in a soft voice and had a request that would seem odd to most.

The man’s name was Andy, and he’d seen who was traveling with the woman. The woman’s companion was hard to miss. He was only two years old, but already weighed a whopping 230 pounds.

That’s because he was an Old English Mastiff. His name was Sherman, and he’d been sticking his giant head out the window — which is why Andy had seen him at all in the first place.

Though those stats in and of themselves are impressive, there’s more to Sherman than meets the eye. He’s also a therapy dog, and the outside of the SUV he rode in had his owner’s number and his therapy dog title.

Stopped in traffic nearby, Andy had seen them and just had to call. Sherman’s owner later wrote about it and posted her story to Facebook.

“He told us he had just returned home after a 3+ month stay in a nursing home facility,” she wrote. “He was recovering from the most recent of multiple back surgeries.”

She also found out that Andy used to also have a giant dog, but he’d had to find him a new home because of his own health issues and inability to care for the dog anymore.

“This decision clearly broke his heart, as we could hear him choking up as he spoke,” she continued on Facebook. “He asked if we could meet up sometime, so he could just pet Sherman.”

Sherman’s owner readily agreed, and they ended their conversation, promising to set up a meet and greet. But Andy’s sad voice stuck with the woman, and she couldn’t just let the opportunity go.

“We decided to call him back and ask if he would like to turn off into the Wal-Mart parking lot to say, ‘Hello’ to Sherman real quick. We could hear his voice cracking over the phone when he said, ‘Yes!'”

The resulting pictures are simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking. The man clearly missed his own dog, and if you’re a dog person, you’ve probably experienced at one point or another the terrible feeling of being separated from your furchild, whether temporarily or otherwise.

Sherman’s owner described the meeting as a sight to behold. “As soon as he sat down, Sherman came right over and started nuzzling into him. The tears started almost immediately… “

“Andy sobbed into Sherman’s neck. Sherman just sat there, letting him hug him, hold him, and kiss him. It wasn’t long before we were all pretty teary-eyed, as he told Sherman all about his dog he had to let go.”

Dogs hold a special place in our hearts. We’re drawn to pups who resemble the dogs of our past, and crossing paths with a reminder of the canines we knew can improve our whole day.

We’re glad Sherman and his owner were in the right place at the right time, able to offer a service that they do best, offering love and comfort to those in need of it.

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