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Several years ago, April Hollingsworth went to a local animal shelter, looking for her missing cat. She’d had no intention (意向) of coming home with a dog, but when she saw Piggy, the dog smiled at her.

“I’d never seen a dog smile before, so I had to have her,” she told KLS News. Piggy loved to run and play, but the dog’s life changed three and a half years ago when she was struck by a car outside Hollingsworth’s house. Hollings-worth came out to find her dog covered with blood, unable to move. When she took Piggy to the vet, the news wasn’t good. “It wasn’t until I picked her up that I really understood that she was paralyzed (瘫痪的),” Hollingsworth said. “No one came out and said, ‘You should put her down,’ but that was what they thought.”

But Hollingsworth decided that she would give her dog as much care and help as she needed to stay alive. She bought the dog a cart (手推车), letting her walk without use of her back legs. Now, Piggy is pretty good at getting around on her own and her favorite place to go to is the children’s wing of Shriners Hospital.

Piggy visits children who also have physical problems. “As soon as the children see her, they think of their own situation,” said Andrea Mathers, a nurse. “I think that is what makes her unique coming here to the hosp ital, so it is really something that these kids look forward to.”

“I think if we’re lucky we have something to give the world to make people happy,” said April. “I have a great dog who spreads happiness wherever she goes, so I feel it’s as much my duty as it is something that makes me really happy.”