A Skydiving Accident Led This Couple To Their Perfect Rescue Dog

Whether or not you believe everything happens for a reason, this story makes a strong case for silver linings. This spring, Ian Azeredo and his wife Linda Farkas adopted Otter, a spunky mixed breed rescue dog, from St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center in Madison, New Jersey. If it hadn’t been for a terrible skydiving accident though, they never would have met their beloved dog and best friend. In July of 2019, Azeredo was on a skydiving trip, something he had done hundreds of times before. This time, he ended up hitting the ground at 60 miles per hour, severely injuring himself in the collision. It ultimately put him into a coma. Farkas recalled: “He spent two months in the ICU in Morristown. And they wouldn’t let you eat in the ICU. So I went one day to shovel lunch in my face real quick and saw this couple putting up therapy dog posters. They were local to Morristown, and they actually recommended St. Hubert’s.” @StHubertsAnimal/Facebook Azeredo spent nearly nine months in recovery at this hospital right down the road from St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center. Therapy dogs from there also came to visit the hospital. Azeredo mentioned how valuable these visits were: “I was a broken to...