The Story

Jen Blood met a new guy and they had a lot in common, including a love of animals. Over the next year and a half, Jen discovered that her boyfriend was actually an animal hoarder. They were living in an abandoned elementary school in rural Kentucky, struggling to care for dozens of animals. Jen tells Dick Gordon about her growing realization that she’d become an unwitting participant in an animal hoarding operation, and what made her finally leave the situation. Also: kayak polo.

When Jerry White served in the Vietnam War, he was warned of a beautiful girl named Tuyet who was collaborating with the Viet Cong. Jerry met Tuyet and was smitten. When the Viet Cong tried to assassinate Jerry with a bomb, Tuyet was hit instead. She survived, and thirty years later Jerry went back to Vietnam to find her.

Kelly Fern was born in South Korea, the fourth of six children. Her parents gave her up for adoption when she was 5, with the hope that she would be fed and educated. Kelly grew up in Rochester, Minn., distant from her Korean roots and with a mental picture of her Korean family that turned out not to match reality. Last year she received a letter that changed her perception of her family and herself. She flew to Korea for the first time to be reunited with her family after 37 years. Also in this story: listener Bill Munro's true story, "The Match."

Incidents of road rage increase in the bumper-to-bumper traffic of the summer. Paula wrote in about her husband, Greg. On the way out of town for a much-needed vacation, Greg and Paula encountered an aggressive driver who nearly drove them off the road. Greg normally keeps his cool - he spends a lot of time on the road driving large loads. In this case he didn't: before too long, both cars had pulled over and Greg had the guy in a headlock. Also in this episode, HIV/AIDS is spreading across the American South, particularly among the African American population. This week, the Black AIDS Institute issued a report criticizing the federal government for not doing more to help.African American woman are the most vulnerable to infection. DeVondia Roseborough found out she was HIV-positive in December 2003.