By Greg Mellen For Contra Costa Times
LONG BEACH – The sight was horrifying. The dog bolting past her and out onto the rain-slicked street. The blue truck striking the animal and never stopping.
Nadine Edwards saw it all.
Taco Baby, the dog given to her by a doctor to be her companion while she battled cancer, was whimpering in the street.
The dog’s back legs and hips were a twisted and bloody mess.
Edwards could think of only one thing. She scooped up the dog and started to run.
Three weeks later, as she prepared for her second breast cancer surgery in a year, Edwards wasn’t sure what the future held.
But at least she could smile.
Yes, she is homeless and scrapes by on her disability pension. The return of the cancer is certainly worrisome.
But Taco Baby, her 11-month-old pug-terrier mix, was going to be OK.
“Even though I’m having surgery, I’m at ease,” Edwards said the day before her Dec. 3 surgery. “I don’t have to worry about him, I’m at ease.”
Thanks to a Norwalk resident Edwards calls her “guardian angel” and a caring doctor who came to the rescue, the holidays are looking a little brighter for the North Long Beach woman.
Taco Baby is recovering from two broken legs, one of which is still encased in a hip-to-paw cast, a fractured pelvis and internal injuries.
But you’d barely notice as he hopped around on his three working legs and licked everyone within reach.
