Like every boy his age, thirteen-year-old Kyle Hrenwood wanted nothing more than a dog to be his best friend. But year after year, his parents insisted he wasn\u2019t ready. Finally, on his thirteenth birthday, they surprised him with a shelter puppy \u2014 the very gift he\u2019d been dreaming of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The day before, Kyle had met Deidre, a grieving widow he\u2019d found crying alone in the park. She had just lost her husband of thirty years and felt completely alone in her silent house. Kyle\u2019s heart broke for her. Remembering her loneliness, he made a bold choice: instead of keeping his long-awaited puppy, he brought it to Deidre, telling her she needed it more than he did. At first, she resisted, afraid to love and lose again, but Kyle\u2019s words \u2014 echoing his mother\u2019s wisdom that avoiding pain also blocks happiness \u2014 convinced her to take the puppy, whom she later named Max.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the years, Kyle and Deidre became friends, but eventually, Kyle\u2019s family moved away. He grew up, went to college, and fell in love. On his wedding day, just after saying \u201cI do,\u201d Kyle was stunned to see an excited dog racing up the aisle \u2014 it was Max! Behind him was Deidre, holding a small puppy with a bow around her neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deidre smiled and said, \u201cI\u2019ve come to return the gift you gave me.\u201d The puppy, Gemma, was Max\u2019s daughter, and around her neck was a key. Deidre explained it was the key to her house, which she wanted Kyle and his new wife to fill with love, laughter, and family \u2014 just as Kyle had once filled her lonely home with hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Like every boy his age, thirteen-year-old Kyle Hrenwood wanted nothing more than a dog to be his best friend. But year after year, his parents insisted he… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":414,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4160,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158\/revisions\/4160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}