Stories of Kindness from Around the World

My good-willed but completely overwhelmed sister-in-law  has 2 dogs which got loose a couple of months ago and were picked up by animal control.  

When she bailed them out of the shelter, she was mandated to get rabies vaccinations and send proof to the city by a certain date.

Typically, she let this slide until the city sent her a threatening follow up letter and began leaving notes on her door.  Instead of just dealing with it, she reacted with anxiety and did nothing - not even open the letter from animal control. Of course this made her even more anxious.  But no amount of encouragement or warnings my husband or I gave her seemed to be able to move her to take any action.
 
I was afraid the city might do something drastic and create even more severe problems for someone who already could barely handle her current situation, so I finally decided to contact animal control myself and explained that I was trying to help her out because she was so overwhelmed.  
 
The officer I spoke to was amazingly nice and said they would waive all fines and extend her deadline another week if she would get the dogs vaccinated and bring in the certificate.  My sister-in-law was very relieved and has now gotten the vaccinations and gone down to animal control.  Problem solved.

Sometimes a very small gesture by someone not emotionally involved in the problem can give the the person who IS involved just the boost needed to get over the hump.  And many times, as in this instance with animal control, when people understand that someone else is struggling, they're often willing to work with them.