A stray from Texas healed her soul one shoe at a time

Lily arrived in Minnesota from Texas as a heartworm-positive stray with serious wounds, and Northern Lakes Rescue agreed to thousands of dollars in medical bills to put her back together. Kelly Brunson saw the rescue's first photos of the dog and told her husband they did not need a third dog, then could not stop looking. The family came home from vacation to find Lily waiting in Kelly's mother's garage. Five minutes later, they knew. The timing turned out to matter more than anyone expected. Within a couple of months, the Brunsons lost their first dog to leukemia, a week after she fell ill. Lily kept waking Kelly each morning with something new and faintly ridiculous. Some days she wore a curtain on her head. Some days she carried over a single shoe, as if asking whether Kelly was ready to put it on. "She has healed my soul," Kelly wrote.