One of the Most Disturbing Stories Becomes a Favorite

 You've got to picture the background to understand what this woman was up against.  The Jews were God's Chosen People and they knew it. Most likely the neighbouring 'gentiles' were quite aware of this opinion also. But mother-love surpasses even racial barriers if the mother is desperate enough. This mom sure was. This Canaanite Woman knew Jesus was a teacher and a healer, she probably assumed He was in their country to preach to the Jews living among them but she didn't care. Her daughter was sick, really sick because of a demon that was causing terrific suffering. Jesus could deliver her, she knew it, so she pleads with Him to do so. www.marilynshistoricalnovels.com
Now here comes the puzzling part, not only did Jesus not do it, but He ignored her and later implied that she was a dog. (Probably a common racial slur at the time.)

Why did she persist? Because she saw something the disciples didn't. She saw the love in His eyes, and He saw her faith. He saw a tremendous opportunity to teach those hoity-toity Jews that God loved everyone. So why did she run off to beg the disciples to do something? Maybe she figured Jesus thought it would jeopardize His position if He healed her daughter so out of respect tried to give Him a break. But they weren't helpful so Jesus honoured her request--and her faith. I love it!

Mother

Can You Believe It?

Hi, I found an adorable story that I sure wanted to share. It was from an ancient Reader's Digest written before most of us were born, but releavent today. Every night Janice Glover's great aunt would tuck her pet dog in for the night saying; "There that will keep the cold away from Dennie."

One day a cousin came to call and as he rubbed his hands in front of the fire he commented about how bitterly cold it was outdoors. Dennie whisked out of the room, and while the others listened, he came thump-thumping down the stairs with his good ole doggie blanket and presented it to the visitor.

Who Will Help Us With Our Problems?

It was a super-nice day and a Sunday afternoon, besides, which meant time to do something fun and relaxing. What should it be? Both hubby and I agreed that it would be great to take a walk in the park, so what if the city was 45 km. away.

 Now I have this real special dog. Some of you will remember Kasa as a cute small white puppy however she did some growing since then, but of course I wanted her along. With the help of a nice blue tarp for the back of the vehicle, she happily came for the ride.

 Right from the beginning things didn’t go quite as expected. First of all Kasa, who is an overgrown puppy is used to our boring country roads and would walk sedately enough, but these new trails with wonderful strangers to greet and especially all those dogs to make friends with, oh boy oh boy, was she ever excited! I quickly handed the leash over to Stephen, this super enthused ‘pal’ was a lot more than I could handle.

Diversion number two: A friend we hadn’t visited with much for several years because he lived elsewhere, stepped up to us. “Can I walk with you?” Sure, of course.

 Problem number two. The first one was a too rambunctious dog, you got that, right? Well now it was two men that had strong long strides that I could hardly keep up with. I was panting slightly on the inclines, but didn’t say much because my inherited blood pressure problem could use a workout, right. Right? Just as a side note, my B.P. had dropped to the normal range by the next morning. Yippee! Even my pills hadn’t coaxed it to do that.

 Hmm, problems weren’t over, though. On the way home, the car sputtered and died. My better half filled the rad with water but that didn’t help for long. So there we sat with the hood up, wondering what to do. Pretty soon a friend came cruising along with his family on the way to evening church. Sure, he would give us a ride home. There was even a place for the mutt behind the back seat of that roomy SUV. We joked about her sitting on the laps of the teenage girls on the back seat who were all dressed up in their Sunday best.

We got home in time to listen to the inspiring service over the phone and just as the last song was being sung a neighbour called.

  “Was that your car I saw beside the road?” Well, to make a long story short that friendly neighbour helped to haul it home.

  So did you read between the lines? Who will help us with our problems? God will. He doesn’t always give us such immediate or fun solutions, but often enough that we know He is in control so I’m gonna just keep trusting Him.  

No Time to Call the Vet!

We just had a terrifying moment with our adorable, little puppy. I use an old pitcher little this with a more curved neck to water houseplants with than the one in the picture, and Cuddles got her head stuck in it. I tried to pull or twist it off, but that was impossible! Next, I grabbed a stone to break out an air hole for her. She had been calm til now but was beginning to panic, like me! I raced into the storage room and grabbed the vice grip but it seemed to take forever to chip pieces off that in-my-mind-too-durable vessel. But we did it, we did it, and Cuddles definitely wanted a reassuring moment of cuddling after that. What if our daughter hadn't noticed the puppy's predicament so quickly? What if she hadn't been there to hold her for me? God cares even about the little things.

Post Script for One of Your Favorite Pet Stories

God’s Little Surprises
If you'd read this before, just skip to the postscript at the bottom, if you want.

How many of you remember me moaning and groaning about losing our sixteen year old Golden Retriever? In my mind’s eyes I can still see her lying on a blanket beside the bed, breathing heavily. I stroked her and spoke comfortingly to her, but it was evident to all that the end was coming soon. And it did. Sigh.

We eventually got a beagle cross to fill an empty spot in my heart, and I thought he was doing a pretty good job, but you know what? He had to go. We had to let that sweet, wiggly bunch of energy and love go to a new home ‘cause he was just plain mean to our daughter’s cat and destructive?? Yup, you better believe it.

Bye, Rusty, I’m glad you were rehomed with someone who can handle your antics AND adores you.

So what did I do, besides moping around that is? Well, I filled up on a lot of videos that sure didn’t take the ache away, and I looked …and looked.

With hubby unemployed and me unable to work, we weren’t able to pay an arm and a leg for some incredible purebred darling but surely, surely God would have one picked out for us somewhere.  Stephen and I spent pretty much all day yesterday handing out the Good News of Salvation to anyone who was receptive to it, and most were.

But do you know what? I had something else on my mind, also and I won’t ask you to guess what.

It was dark out and we were a long ways from home, but we found one more place to offer our pamphlets. By then we were well pass that lighted up sanctuary with an open door, but turned around. It was then my husband spotted this inconspicuous sign: free puppies.

I was almost breathless with joy. We first found a very receptive audience for our bundle of leaflets then…off we went!

Yes, yes, yes! There were puppies, the most adorable, sweetest and cutest mixed breed handfuls of joy. Okay, you know the rest. One little sweetheart came home with me. Her favorite spot was around my neck so I was gladly sporting a white fur collar while we traveled!

P.S. The first picture I found on Google could have hardly looked more like our little girl.

P.S. We've had this cute, little rascal for about six months now, and my how she has grown! We've had a number of dogs over the years, but none of them have been so sweet as are little Kasa (Cuddles.)  Today was a typical example as to what she is like. We have lots of saskatoon trees on our acreage and this year the berries were particularly big and juicy so guess what I was doing, and guess who was just a-hangin' around just because she liked to be with me. 

If you just said "Aww, sweet," well I agree with you. Occasionally she would romp off to check something out and after a while I'd say. "Where's my sweet, little companion," or something similar and back she'd come. 

And oh, yes, maybe I should insert this as postscript two since it is a new paragraph, so hold on a sec.

P.S. 2.

I would sometimes hang a branch down real low and our little scallywag loves to much on berries right off the vine. This interested me because when I'm picking strawberries, she'll get her nose right in there to see what I am doing, but doesn't care to eat any. 

So long folks. I could pick more saskatoons but the mosquitoes chased me in!

v

When One Isn't Enough

I’ve been one of those people who say ‘one cat, that’s all. Absolutely no more cats belong in the house.’
 Okay, but what do you do when your daughter begs and begs for her own precious kitten. Well, what I did is not what you are expecting, I didn’t say yes and I didn’t say no, but I did say “Go ask your Dad,” so now you know what happened.

       Our docile, completely trainable Dreamboy, a big, fluffy cat, became ‘uncle’ to an absolute rascal. How in the world do you train a feline that seems to be part monkey and part flying acrobat, to stay off the furniture to say nothing of the counters and table? Well, I tried, and am trying with the assistance of a tiny water sprayer. It helps: sorta. That is while I am around. But

That is not the end of the story.

       Good old Sheba died. Our meek and gentle, friendly part Golden Retriever is out ‘rabbit hunting’ as it were, and won’t  be coming back,  and now I was left with a hole in my heart.  I didn’t even know how much I would miss her until the days, then weeks just kept ticking by.

       In my heart of hearts I knew no one would replace Sheba except one with a similar nature and hey, we found him! Beagles are pleasingly similar to Goldens in temperament.   
     .
       As close as we can figure the little guy we chose was born very close to the time Sheba passed.  (Oh, sorry, I got that wrong, he chose me.)

 Ok, but what sensible human would have a menagerie in the house, pray-tell? Not I naturally, or would I? How could you leave such a tiny adorable puppy outside in the cold and the dark? He might get lonely, or worse yet, lost. 

 So when Rusty romped in to join the kitty pair there’s a cautious eyeing of each other for a while but of course that lively rambunctious kitten of our daughter’s soon wants to play, and, well, let’s just say that things got pretty lively until Dreamboy decided to investigate. He is nicknamed ‘Uncle’ and he tolerated his role more or less towards Hercules, but along comes this blundering scamp who is ‘picking on’ his charge.

Last night Dreamboy was pacing around on top of the coffee table ready to give the guileless puppy a lesson with those sharp claws of his because there was a dog and cat fight going on at his feet.  This was getting interesting; we never knew ‘uncle’ would feel that loyal to the little nuisance that had invaded his peaceful existence.

What would happen to Rusty? Would he learn not to be so rough when the kitten’s guardian is around? Nope! In his happy go lucky way he was off to other adventures before ‘uncle’ had a chance to swipe.

Be careful little guy, you’re precious to me. God knew just who I needed to fill that aching void in my heart, and since you bounced into the scene, I’m healing up pretty rapidly.  

not exactly as illustrated

P.S. Yes, even though the dog is smart and catches on very quickly, I am glad we have laminated flooring.

Nope they aren't the same dog, they're google images but which one can I remove?

Even the Sky is Crying

I'm sure not feeling like my happy cheerful self today. About six weeks ago good old Sheba, our dog, took a trip with us to the vet. She is old and has diarrhea. The vet said it was almost guaranteed that she has kidney problems. After all she was part golden retriever, and she has been with us nearly sixteen years. That's well over a hundred doggie years. Everything else was fine so I numbly hoped for the best. 

Lately Sheba has been spending far too much time holed up in her dog house and yesterday she didn't come once to check out her food dish. When I looked in on her, she, although still beautiful on the outside, was skin and bones and looked so tired and weak. 

Okay, that's enough. She has to move into the house. I cannot have her dying, feeling abandoned and all alone, in the doghouse when she has been such a faithful and loyal friend all these years. 

She was reluctant to move in the house, after all the other part of her is Alaskan Malamute, but in this case I'll say 'mama knows best.' Her favorite doggie blanket will come along. But tomorrow we will need to go back to the vet. For the last time. 

How can you put a dog to sleep when she looks up with you with such love in her eyes and thumps her tail every time you come around? 

How can you dig a grave, even in one of her favorite resting spots beneath the lilacs when she is still alive?

How can you say goodbye?