Just thinking about this movie gives me shivers and makes me want to cry. In happiness, that is. I hate to sound so melodramatic, but that's how this movie affected me as a 10 year old seeing it for the first time. If I can recall, this movie was a Christmas season mini-classic shown every year on CBS. They used to show it every year for about 5 or 6 years or so, then it vanished. I was a young kid growing up in Brooklyn and my life had some strong parallels to JT's as I, too, had a hard, lonely existence and adopted stray dogs and cats only to find them dead after being hit by cars one after another. That didn't stop me from befriending other strays though, as this movie taught me many valuable lessons about life. Especially for animals. What I wouldn't give to revisit these characters again!