We had breakfast at Jean’s Place this morning, and at the very insistent urging of the staff, we went home afterward to bring Zinnia over to the diner to meet the crew.

It was a sensation, a near riot. All cooking (even Kevin the chef came out) ceased.

Kelsie and Kelly and Robin, passionate dog lovers all, loved her, hugged her, kissed her, and were kissed back. Zinnia is quite the social butterfly, she loves meeting people and showers them with licks and an ever-wagging tail.

I’ve never been so popular as I have been this week.

On top of her many charms, Zinnia is the most powerful chick magnet that I’ve encountered in my life. I told Maria that if she ever dumps me, I’ll be swarmed by some wonderful and loving women.

She didn’t seem too worried.

Robin, our friend and a waitress at Jean’s,  came over and sat down on a stool across from us. She told us she had a story to tell, a moving story of love and fate and dogs and connection.

The story began a month or two ago,  when Robin handed us a $100 gift certificate to Jean’s Place, it was purchased over the phone by a blog reader and friend named Eileen Peterson, who lives in Southern California.

She read about our love of Jean’s and wanted to buy some meals for me there.

It was a wonderful gesture, but I couldn’t accept it, I don’t need it, but I know others do.

I told Robin to keep the certificate and use it to pay the food bills of people who were struggling.

I never gave it another thought until today when Robin told us the story of Remington, a beautiful black Lab, a Service Dog who came into Jean’s with his family a week ago.

The family asked permission to bring him in and Robin said sure, of course. Jean’s does not turn dogs away.

He sat down next to the older couple while they ate. He didn’t move, but the couple said Robin was welcome to pet him and talk to him. She said he was the sweetest dog.

Suddenly, the woman began crying and Robin asked her what was wrong.

They had just come from the vet, they said, and Remington had a lethal form of cancer. They were going to have to put him down to spare him some awful suffering.

The woman said it had been a terrible year, their home had burned down just a few months earlier, they lost nearly everything they owned but their lives and Winchester.

Robin said she knew what she needed to do, she told them the meal was on Jean’s, she was going to use my gift certificate (half of it) to pay for their dinner, and as a token of love for Winchester.

The remaining half would go to another needy family.

The couple was stunned and full of gratitude.

Robin told them the gift certificate was from me, and they said they knew who I was, they had read some of my books. Robin was crying as she told the story, and she said the couple was also.

This was a deeply moving story for me to hear on many levels, this was a Circle Of Good.

One was that Eileen’s gift, sent from California, traveled across the country to honor a wonderful dog named Remington, and also helped a couple who needed some help and were struggling with great losses.

They were touched by this gift, it lifted them up and gave them hope.

Robin couldn’t tell the story without crying, and we both needed a hug. Afterwards, it was all the more gratifying to go and get Zinnia, and see the love these tough-talking, big-hearted women had for her.

Jean’s is a place with great heart, there are not enough of them. It’s true that good spawns good and love spawns love. I told Maria I wanted to write a check for another gift certificate to Jean’s, this one from me.

I know they will use it to reach out to other people who are needed and vulnerable. The chain went this way: one of my books was sold in  California to Eileen,  then came back to Cambridge in the form of a gift certificate, then back to Jean’s, and over to a weary and battered couple from Bennington, Vt.

That’s really how the world ought to work. I don’t know if Remington is still alive or not, but Godspeed to him, and to the people who loved him so much.

It sounds mushy, but Zinnia might be some sort of angel, love and joy already seem to follow her. Good luck Remington, you sound like a true spirit dog to me.