One of my ideas in life is that everything happens for a reason. I do not always see that at the time it is occurring, however upon reflection I can make the links.

A near tragedy, which changed my daughter's life forever, can be linked to a fateful day when she saw a puppies for sale sign in a yard two blocks from our home. Many times before we had gone past and many times she had asked for a puppy from that house with the a puppies for sale sign, and I had said no!

I was resolved that a puppy, lovely as it might be was impractical at that time in our busy household. I had no intention of changing my mind.

My daughter has always loved dogs. We had a gun dog that was in his senior years. My wife and I knew that we were not going to have him as part of the family for much longer, but we did not know how we were going to break this news to our daughter.

She was ten years old at the time and much attached to the dog that was eleven years old. She came home from school one day very excited because she said a friend had been allowed to have a puppy. A lovely puppy for sale at the place we passed so often, and also there were more in the litter still for sale. Her friend had seen the sign from the school bus.

So my daughter wanted to know if we could go see the puppies. I told her that her father only bought dogs that were registered and that we had not idea what kind of puppies the neighbors had for sale. The people that had the puppies for sale were fairly new to the neighborhood so we did not know them or what breed of dog they owned.

She pleaded to go see the puppies. In the end I perversely promised her we would walk over after supper and see them. I had no intention of buying. I felt it was something I must do. Just go there.

We went to the house that had the puppies for sale and knocked on the door.

You could hear dogs barking and a baby crying but no one came to the door. We rang the bell several times and then knocked on the door.

I was concerned because the child crying sounded frantic. I looked in the side window by the door and saw a woman lying on the floor. I tried the door and it was open.

Then immediately I could see that the woman was obviously very pregnant and unconscious. The telephone was lying on the floor next to her. In a playpen was her 12 month old son crying.

In another playpen was a mother dog with seven puppies. I moved gently rolled her on to her side for her safety and called 911.

Within minutes the paramedics arrived and there was nothing they could do but deliver her baby in front of us, and soon a Doctor arrived as well.

My daughter was awestruck. The mother recovered and the shock eased. The lovely puppies, watched us. The 12 month old kid who we fed and bathed, and then the crying, but that came from a perfectly healthy baby being born, and all this happening in the house with us.

The woman's husband has been out of town on business and had not been due back until the next day. She had tripped and fallen, striking her head as she fell. The doctor told her that if we had not come over at that moment she and the baby might have died.

The puppies for sale sign saved her life. Did my daughter get her puppy? What do you think?