A Forgiving Heart

Renee Carter proudly shows John Avery Whittaker around the brand-new animal clinic that belongs to her aunt, Dr. Pat, whom she has affectionately called "B-Pat" ever since she was too little to say "Aunt Pat." The clinic's grand opening is set for the weekend, and Renee is sure her favorite aunt will be a smashing success in Odyssey. But as Pat and Renee lock up for lunch, a stranger confronts them. He introduces himself as Wilfred Norcom, a man who once raised prize-winning border collies, and he makes a chilling accusation about Pat: "Your aunt is a killer." He vows to turn the whole town against her, warning, "I'll ruin you here just like I have everywhere else."

Shaken, Renee drives her aunt to Whit's End, where Pat explains that Norcom has hounded her for years, showing up wherever she works to ruin her reputation. She says it began at her very first job out of vet school, when Norcom brought in a puppy sick with parvovirus. The pup arrived too late to be saved and had already infected all the collies on Norcom's farm. Pat is ready to cancel the opening and move away yet again, but Whit asks permission to talk with Norcom, and Renee urges her aunt to stop running. Pat agrees.

Meeting Whit in the park, Norcom tells his side. He lost his beautiful fifty-acre farm, his dogs, his income, and even his wife after the pups died. He claims the clinic where Pat worked was secretly a research laboratory, and that Pat deliberately infected his pup so she could test an experimental parvovirus cure. Whit gently suggests that grief and bitterness have twisted how Norcom sees things, but Norcom leaves him with a single word to research: the name of the drug, Minoxifan.

Whit's research prompts a hard conversation. Pat asks him to bring Renee, saying it is time her niece knew the whole story. Pat admits the clinic really was a research facility, and that when tests showed Norcom's pup already had parvo in its early stages, she got her bosses' permission to try the experimental serum on him. The drug seemed to work, so the pup was sent home as cured - but the serum actually sped up the virus, and the pup relapsed and infected the rest of Norcom's dogs. The facility was investigated and shut down, and the lead researchers lost their licenses. Pat, a junior researcher following orders, was never held liable. The real wrong, she confesses, is that no one ever asked Norcom's permission, and shame has kept her running ever since.

Then comes the part that was never in any report. While Norcom's pup seemed healthy, Pat let him play in the clinic yard with the only other puppy there that day - Cog, Renee's own beloved childhood pet. A week later, Cog got sick and died. Pat tearfully admits she is the one responsible and begs Renee to forgive her for hiding it all these years. Heartbroken, Renee can only whisper her dog's name.

The next day, Whit checks on Renee, who insists she is fine, though she clearly is not. Whit tells her that Pat's record since the incident has been stellar, that she deserves a second chance, and that Renee's forgiveness matters too. Renee pours out how much Cog meant to her - he was the friend she relied on more than anyone, and his terrible death is the very thing that made her stop believing in God. Whit tells her the only way to truly forgive is to turn back to the source of forgiveness, God himself. Their conversation is interrupted by a breaking news report on Whit's computer: a car has plowed through the crowd at the clinic's grand opening and crashed into the building.

Whit and Renee rush to the scene and find Pat safe with only scrapes and bruises. The driver was Norcom, who tried to run Pat down on live television; he is injured, hauled off by the police, and unlikely to trouble her for a long time. When Pat laments that the damage to her opening day is done, Renee marches up to the TV reporter and, live on the air, tells all of Odyssey that "we still have a perfectly good back door, and we're open for business." Then she tells her aunt what the announcement really means: Cog's death was a mistake, Pat has punished herself long enough, and forgiveness is overdue for a comeback. Renee forgives her aunt and tells her she loves her, and Pat happily agrees to stay in Odyssey for good.

Some time later, Renee records an entry in her computer journal, talking to Cog the way she always has. The clinic is a big hit, she is doing better, and she still means to thank Mr. Whittaker for reminding her about a forgiving heart. As for what he said about the source of forgiveness, she hasn't forgotten. With a smile in her voice, she tells her old friend, "I'll think about it if you stop hounding me." It's a joke - but it sounds like a heart beginning to heal.