The happy ending to this terribly sad situation feels utterly natural and unforced, and is all the more satisfying for being so! I was tearing up almost as soon as I began reading How Smudge Came, a testament, I think, to the power of Nan Gregory's words, which instantly sucked me in to the story, and placed me squarely in Cindy's shoes. If there's one thing Cindy doesn't know, it's how to find that puppy. When her attempts to retrieve him from the shelter prove unsuccessful, she is overcome by sadness and anger: "Cindy sits in the park for a long time, but the hurt won't stop.
Cindy, a young woman with Down Syndrome - something that is never mentioned directly in the book, but made evident through various elements of the artwork and story (like the fact that Cindy lives in a supervised group home) - desperately wants to keep the rescued puppy, named Smudge by a mostly blind cancer patient at the hospice where she works, but the people in charge of her home insist that he must go to the SPCA. "If there's one thing Cindy knows, this is no place for a puppy," begins this heartbreaking and heartwarming tale of a girl, a dog, and two communities.
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