Day one with the Dog

So
when I was traveling down to see my family in Florida this thanksgiving
I stopped off in Warrner Robins GA to pick up and dogsit my sister’s
dog. The dog is an all black Cockapoo with little white paws…ahhhhhh!
That’s right, the species is a mix between a cocker spaniel and a
poodle thus the name cockapoo. O the story of the cockapoo is never
ending. Did I mention the dogs name is princess? Can you picture me
walking the dog with a pink leash talking to it in a high pitched voice
telling it softly to go potty? I still can’t, but I did and am doing
it…

Back to the story. After traveling through the night I arrive pick up
the dog at 6am. Upon placing the dog and its hundreds of pieces of
traveling gear in the passenger seat of the truck it starts to shake
nervously. I seriously thought it was going to have a seizure. I begin
talking to it sweet and soft like trying to get it to calm down.

I then proceed to continue my travels southward to see my friends and
family in Florida. About 30 minutes into our adventure I see princess
start to get really uncomfortable and start licking her chops rapidly.
Then the words of my sister came back to me, “She might get a little
car sick, so don’t feed her before you leave.” And about the time I
finished that thought princess had successfully vomited her breakfast
all over my center consol. I swear to you I didn’t know a dog that
small could hold that much liquid. Its was as thick and pasty like
slime that didn’t wipe up well. I tried using my pillow case that I had
behind the seat, but the throw up was resistant to the absorbing power
of the cloth. I had to pull over and get napkins.

To say the least the adventure was starting off on a relatively great
start, not. I couldn’t yell at the dog she wouldn’t understand, and
it’s not her fault she gets sick. Maybe it is, but it’s like dealing
with a small child you just have to role with the punches and in this
case the bile.

The story doesn’t stop there. About another hour into the drive she did
it again. This time it was double the collateral damage. It went onto
me, the seat, and the floor. I about threw her out the window, but then
I started to laugh because watching her heave is really funny. I know
that’s mean to say but given the situation I needed a little comic
relief. Have you ever watched a dog barf, its quick humorous. I am not
advocating that you  intentionally induce your pets to vomit, but
if you ever have the chance to watch it do it, it’s a guarantee
laugh. 

Buy this time I again tried to mop up the mess with whatever I could
find. Materials are sparse when traveling in the truck. So again I
stopped and cleaned it with some random napkins and gave princess some
water. My sympathy for the animal was at it’s peak, so held her and
told her we were almost there, which was a lie because we were still 5
hours from our destination. She didn’t know.

After the cleaning and hydration break we again continued the long
journey south to see friends and family. By this time the truck began
to smell really bad. I mean bad. It’s was starting to get ripe. I
couldn’t open the windows either because when I did it freaked the dog
out and I didn’t want to upset her stomach anymore then it was. So I
sucked it up and said to my self, “it could be worse she could do it a
third time.”  And a third time she did.

About two minutes away from our overnight destination I took one too
many turns and she barfed the nastiest yellow bile stuff I have ever
seen. This was putting me in a very compromising situation because this
was causing me to dry heave a little almost causing me to have the same
fate as miss princess. However, I was strong and held it like a man.

Stayed at my friend’s house princess recovered, I cleaned, and the truck dried out.

Day two with Princess

My friend Wes only lives about an hour and a half north of my sister. I
stopped at his house because I wanted to see my Goddaughter and to work
on his boat with him for the day. After all the catching up was
completed and the work accomplished I putt princess back in the truck
for what was supposed to be a short non stressful ride down to my
sisters. I couldn’t be more wrong.

The ride was going great I was really proud of the dog for holding her
breakfast and I was praising her all the way. However, about two miles,
five minutes, away from my sister’s house something happened.

I was heading in one direction approaching an intersection which was
under construction. I had a green light and so did the traffic coming
in the opposite direction. There was a car in the left turn lane who
was creeping out right in front of me. I was fine with this because he
had a green light to turn left as did I to go strait. I thought, since
there was no cars behind me he was waiting for me to pass through the
intersection to make the left turn. I was mistaken. He kept creeping
and creeping then I realized, “this dude doesn’t realize he is
creeping.”

Everything slowed down. It was like I was in the matrix. Everything
almost stopped for a split second. My life didn’t pass before my eyes
but I did have a regret or two going into the intersection. I laid on
the horn, slammed on my breaks, and tried to shift to the lane to the
right of me exposing my drivers side door to avoid the head on
collision. It was the best I could do to lessen the impact. I got hit
and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.  I
immediately turned off my engine calmly called the police as well as my
sister. After the 30 seconds of phone calls and composing myself I
tried to exit my drivers side door. To my surprise I couldn’t. I needed
to check on the others involved in the accident so I climbed over the
center consol of my truck, grabbed princess by the scruff of her neck,
placed her in the drivers seat and opened the passenger door to exit.
Here is where is gets scary. As I am closing the passenger side door
princess in shear fear jettisons the vehicle before I could close the
door. Now mind you, I am in Florida at one of the busiest intersections
in town, that is surrounded by construction equipment and forest. She
bolted like I never seen a dog bolt before, she is a fast beast that
weaved in and out of traffic into the construction zone and into a
small patch of woods.
I am not going to lie I cussed. The thought of the accident was bad
enough, but the thought of losing what my sister holds most dear was
worse. I would have rather died in the accident then to have lost the
dog.

The problem was I couldn’t leave the accident until the cops cleared us
to leave, and I was calculating the odds of finding the dog and they
weren’t good. I made sure the people in the other vehicle were ok and
waited for the Fire Rescue guys to come. They came in two minutes, very
fast, along with the DOT. The DOT are not local officers they are
highway officers and there main thing is Semi trucks. After the ire
rescue guys cleared us the DOT told us both to move our vehicles off to
the side of the road. Then they called in the accident to the local
sheriffs office who would do the on the scene report. The DOT depart
and leave me and the other guy and his girlfriend to wait for the
sheriff department. 30 minutes go by no sheriff. I call they say they
are on there way. Not true. We wait for 1hr and a half for a sheriff to
show up. Very unprofessional, but I understand given the holiday and
the escalated number of accidents that happen during this week.

Between the time of pulling my truck, which still drives luckily, off
to the side of the road I try to look for the dog. Not wanting to
wander from the scene of the accident to far I start screaming the dogs
name in the middle of the construction area that I saw her dart into.
Now imagine me yell the name princess in the middle of a highly
trafficked intersection. Funny as all get out. I laughed about it while
I was doing it, “princess, princess…ha ha ha…Princess..!” I laughed not
because the dog was lost but because it was slightly embarrassing, but
I got over it and was determined to find the dog.
About 15 minutes into the search my brother-in-law’s dad, whose name is
Lyle, shows up to check on me and to help find the dog. I gave him the
area in which I thought she fled to and told him how to approach the
nervous dog, with bent knee and a soft high voice.

He went to look for her. While waited for the sheriffs to show. 15
minutes later Lyle comes back with good news. He found the dog, but it
wasn’t responding to his call. I gave him her leash, thinking if she
say it she would come to him, and again reminded him of the proper
approach when calling the dog.

Cops finally come, as well as my brother-in-law. The sheriff takes my
statement, license, registration, insurance card and hops back in her
car to fill out the paper work. My Bro-in-law goes to help his dad find
princess. 10 minutes after my Bro-in-law left to find his dad, Lyle
comes up with the dog in his arms, soaking wet. HE then proceeds to
tell me this story.

This is now Lyle speaking… “I found the dog hiding in the bushes which
backed up to a canal. Every time I went to go reach to get the dog she
backed further into the bushes closer to the bank of the canal. She
wanted to come to me but was still unsure and very frightened so she
ran from me until she reached the edge of the water.”

(Let me, doug, quickly interject with this tidbit of Florida wildlife
trivia. In almost every canal live large reptiles called alligators. In
this particularly large canal it has been known to see gators 10 feet
and larger. Back to Lyle’s story.)

“Princess finally came to the decision to venture into the water then
into my arms so that’s what she did, she jumped into the canal. I
quickly saw my opportunity to retrieve her so I went for it. I grabbed
onto a low hanging branch that went out over the water, stuck one foot
on the edge of the water, which eventually slipped in, went almost
parallel to the water, and got the leash around her neck. I quickly
pulled her out threw her up on shore and climbed my way back up the
bank of the canal.”

I pretty much owe everything to this guy. Lyle is the man. After
hearing this story and being forever indebted to this guy I poured out
my thanks and gratitude on him. He took the dog put him in his car and
drove her to my sisters house. By this time randy my Bro-in-law came
back I told him the story and we all were relieved. The sheriff finally
finished the paper work handed me the police report and wished me a
happy thanksgiving. I got into my truck followed my Bro-in-law to his
house and rejoiced because the little lost sheep I mean princess was
found.

That was just within two days of having this dog. I wonder what the next month of babysitting will hold.

There is a plethora of spiritual applications you could give to the
story. I will relate this story to what we are covering in our
encounter time.

Sometimes God takes us out of all familiarity and puts us in a place to
take a journey with him where he is going. To be honest, sometimes we
have no choice, and sometimes we do. In the case of princess she
didn’t. I was going somewhere and she was along for the ride
encountering the things that I did. We were journeying together.
Along the way with our journey that we are on with God we can get sick
of the journey physically, mentally, and spiritually. Sometimes we
desire to give up and throw in the towel. But there is a God we serve
that stops and takes care of us, encouraging us and cleaning us up when
we get sick along the way. He cares, nourishes us while we travel with
him.

Sometimes along the way devastation happens and we get so fearful we
run from the very person that is trying to protect and comfort us. Kind
of like how princess ran from the scene of the accident out of shear
fear. We hid in a dark cold wet place sometime thinking it is better
them walking thru the process of working through these accidents.
O but our God loves you so much he come and he finds you, and he uses
others to help you and find you too. He calls your name, he crosses
traffic, he gets dirty, he gets wet, to meet you where you are at. In
your fear by the banks of treacherous waters he meets you. Knowing that
you are to valuable to swim in waters that will lead ultimately to
death. And when you jump in, which sometimes we do, he jumps in as
well, to rescue you, to retrieve you because of his love for you and
your importance in his life. His desire is you, and after he takes you
out of the treacherous water he holds you ever so close and whispers to
your heart that everything is all right, that daddy got you and will
take care of You. He cleans us up getting the dirty water and caked mud
off of you. He dries us off warping us in a warm towel cuddling us
close to his heart taking our fears away.

God is good, and when we are on a journey with him know that he will
take care of you. That he will go to the ends of the earth to find you.

Now may the God that is our shepherd whose arm is strong and comforting
hold you close to his heart easing the fears that you may have along
the journey he is leading you to take.

Love ya
Doug

PS. I got some great stories of my niece and nephew too. More to come.

{mos_sb_discuss:7}

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 30th, 2005 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Contributed Articles, Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.