Dog Gone
by Paula McVay After many years of sobriety, my 38-year-old son relapsed and moved into my home “temporarily” along with his two dogs. Now…….. they are cute with one being a l3-year-old silky and the other an 8month-old rescue……………….mostly Jack Russell. If you know anything about that breed, you realize they are really hyper or skittish. Things were ok until my son’s spouse filed for divorce causing my son to spiral down into deep depression and back to alcohol. He didn’t even notice when the dogs had accidents in my house, my extremely clean house with recently-cleaned white carpets. As he began treatment and was in-and-out of rehab, I had full care of them.
As I shone the flashlight under the bushes, the scripture from Philippians 2:14 came to me………….”Do all things without complaining.” I bowed my head and asked God to forgive me and give direction to find her. Even though I am not a “dog person,” I love my son and did not want to see his little dog freeze to death. Funny how we get all bent out of shape before we call on our Heavenly Father who cares about every little concern of our lives. As I prayed, calmness came over me and thoughts began to formulate in my mind, “Take the older dog with you up and down the street.”
Oh, I’m thankful for the rehab, but I do not enjoy going out into the cold, rain or snow four times per day. Really, that would be eight times because they will not go at the same time.
Just as I was about to give up, the “runaway” came shivering up the drive, wagging her little tail at her older brother and ran into the arms of my dog-lover friend. Whew!
The younger dog, Maybeline, requires a harness and the older one, Bobby, will run away if not on a leash, probably looking for his loving master, my son. One night, he threw up on the extremely clean carpet just as I was heating oil to cook a meal for a shut in.
As I carried her back into the kitchen, I began to survey the damages……………black, curled up flour and oil, my wonderful skillet ruined, and smoke everywhere. I remembered God’s word in II Thessalonians 5:17 “Give thanks in all circumstances.”
As I cleaned that up, the phone rang so I answered and began chatting with one of my other adult sons when I heard a big pop and looked around to see flames shooting up around the pan and smoke filling the area. Of course my smoke detector did not go off even though it had been recently checked. After I put the fire out with flour (a skill I learned while teaching my 2nd graders during Fire Prevention Week), I opened the doors to let the smoke out. The younger/skittish dog began to howl and ran out the door into the 15degree weather. Equipped with my flashlight and bundled up for the ice and snow, I walked up and down the streets calling her name. One of my fellow widow friends, who had kept the dog at times and is a real dog-lover, came over to help me. Here we were…………two little old ladies, walking gingerly and calling her name.