When Brayden Morton shared that his dog Darla had been stolen, he had no idea he was about to receive an opportunity to change lives.
In his Facebook post, Brayden explained that someone in a blue Ford truck had pulled up to his house and taken Darla. His post was shared over 30,000 times as people rushed to bring the sweet girl home.
Willing to do anything he could to get his beloved pup back, Brayden offered a $5,000 reward for her return. Calls flooded in, but they ultimately led to nothing. Brayden even thought he found the truck that was used to take Darla away, but when he confronted the man inside, he was crushed to find out the stranger didn’t have her.
Then one night, he got a call he had been dreading.
“I was told that they thought they had found Darla but she wasn’t alive, and my heart dropped like nothing I’ve ever imagined,” Brayden wrote.
As he waited for confirmation, he received another call from a blocked number. When he answered, all he could hear was a woman crying. She began to hysterically apologize, explaining that she couldn’t live with herself for assisting in stealing his dog.
“Listen, I’m not mad at you, I’m not anything,” Brayden told her over the phone. “I’ve messed up a lot in my life. Let me go home, I’ll grab the cash reward for you, and I will come meet you.”
When the two of them met in a mall parking lot, the woman was still crying and continued to profusely apologize as she returned Darla to him. It quickly became clear to Brayden that she needed help.
“As soon as I saw this young girl I knew she was addicted to drugs,” he said. “I walked up to her and gave her a hug and told her it was alright and I wasn’t mad because I understand what she’s going through all too well. I am a recovering fentanyl addict who has been in recovery for just over six years and I am a Drug and Alcohol Interventionist now.”
At a very early age, Brayden found himself getting into trouble. At 20 years old, he was heavily involved with gangs, and all the while, he was dealing with drug addictions.
He went in and out of rehab, largely because of his dad’s interventions. But he wasn’t able to go drug free until a horrible incident brought him to the hospital. He had been stabbed, shot, and even had a machete stuck in his head. Once Brayden regained consciousness, his thoughts were alarming. Not because he was terrified of what had happened or worried about his injuries, but because he was concerned about getting drugs.
“Everything really became clear in that moment that I was a drug addict and I needed help and I needed to accept help,” Brayden said.
After he was released from the hospital, he went back to rehab. Amazingly, he has been sober ever since! These days, he even runs Find the Right Rehab, where he helps people find the best treatment program for their needs.
That’s why, when the woman insisted she couldn’t accept his money, he offered to pay for her to get treatment instead. The two cried together before she accepted his offer.
While they were talking, she confirmed that the man Brayden had confronted in the blue truck wasn’t involved in stealing Darla. Still feeling terrible about the way he’d accused him, Brayden began to leave the parking lot… until he spotted that same blue truck.
The man was sleeping next to two dogs when Brayden approached him to apologize. When the man woke up, he explained that he recently became homeless after having a few bad weeks.
Again, Brayden could have walked away. Instead, he paid for a week’s stay at a hotel, which turned into two weeks after five friends chipped in. Soon after, they were able to hook the man up with a job!
“Don’t always write someone off,” Brayden said. “There are a lot of good people who are addicted to drugs, sometimes they just need someone to talk to and to go for help. I am so grateful for the people who didn’t give up on me and I’m grateful for the ones who did.”
Not only is Darla back home where she belongs, but two people’s lives were also changed for the better! We could all take a page from Brayden’s book.
Share this story to spread his powerful message of forgiveness and compassion.
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