DELAWARE — A veteran broke into tears when complete strangers reunited him with his two dogs after he couldn’t afford to get them out of a shelter.

James Park suffered a massive heart attack in September and complications kept him hospitalized until just this month.
With no one to care for his dogs — Bailey and Blaze — the First State Animal Center and SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) in Camden, Delaware took the dogs in and put them up for adoption.

Fortunately for Park’s pack, neither dog found a new home before the veteran got out of the hospital.

By then, the dogs were at an SPCA adoption center in a Dover Petsmart store. Park visited the dogs, but didn’t have the $210 to adopt them.

He decided to sell his car for scrap to raise the money.

Before he could do that, volunteers with the animal center and the store chipped in money to pay the fees and buy food, treats, and toys for the dogs.

They surprised Park with the news while a camera recorded the moment — filled with two emotional dogs that were a blur of licking tongues and wagging tails.

“I didn’t think I would have my dogs back,” Park told the Delaware State News. “This is the best Christmas ever.”