Thinking back on God’s goodness, I have to recall the times that He’s taken our most insignificant prayers so seriously. My husband and I have always made wishlists about the big decisions in our lives and prayed over them. Realizing that a pet can bring joy or stress to a family, we’ve seriously consulted God about it the two times we’ve been in the situation of adopting. The first was Mandy, and she was so special. She was our first “child,” a Schnauzer, and she behaved like a human. I may write more about her on another post. After Mandy died, we waited a couple of years and then began to think about adopting again.
Just as we’d done with Mandy, we made a list of qualities in a dog that we desired. This time, we had human children to include in the list making, and they joined us in praying over the list. I don’t recall what exact characteristics made the list, but I’m pretty sure it looked something like this: mid-sized, mottled coat (my preference), non-shedding, good personality, trainable, not stinky or drooly, not a jumper or a licker, etc.
Then began the hunt. For weeks, we scoured the local SPCA website. I called about one dog, and it had just been adopted. A week or so later, I spied the funniest looking pup, tongue hanging out of the side of her mouth, eyes possibly crossed, but joy emanating from the whole package. The pound named her Izzy. I loaded up the kids, and we discovered her location in the dog pound on the other side of the tracks. Literally. She was curled up and snoozing inside the circumference of a much bigger dog. Hubby was at work, so I went with my gut feeling, knowing that we’d prayed about this. After paying the $40 fee, we took her straight to PetSmart for all the puppy essentials in our minivan.
She was so excited that she threw up in the van, very considerately, into one of the cupholders. Then, when we got her home, she ran recklessly through the backyard, dropping every few seconds into the grass and rolling around with delight. She was about six months old, still sporting her baby teeth, and she was full of energy despite her shabby appearance. Really, she was nothing but a bag of skin and bones. Hubby was aghast when he got home. He could not get over the fact that I had gone through with the adoption of such a rough looking dog. She was not another Mandy for sure!
At first, Izzy thought the backyard was her new home. We had to coax her into the house. Then she was sure that the kitchen and breakfast room were the boundaries of her new space, and we had to coax her into visiting the rest of the house. What a humble dog! Now she owns the whole place, except the bathrooms, which she studiously avoids. The dog who lounges in the edges of a muddy pond at every opportunity is scared to death of bath water or swimming pools.
She was so excited to have food! In fact, we had to put stones in with her food so she’d slow down when she ate; we were weary of cleaning up dog vomit, which arrived at the end of nearly every meal when she burped.
About the same time, my oldest child got sick with a GI bug. It was pretty bad, and for a while, my husband thought that he’d gotten a worm from this nasty, vomiting, worm-ridden, flea-infested mutt that I’d brought home.
We asked the vet what kind of dog we had picked up. He was not quite sure. She resembled a Schnauzer, a terrier, and something else with that tuft of fuzzy fur sprouting from her head. During a Lego club meeting, my oldest son who was growing bored with the proceedings, turned to a book about dogs on a shelf in the little room where we met, and hollered, “Ah hah! Izzy is an Otterhound!” Since then, we’ve come to understand her water preferences better as well as the other quirks in her happy-go-lucky personality.
She’s definitely not academic. I have a ton of pictures of her reaction to homeschool math. It never fails to put her into a coma.
In time, hubby mellowed out about the dog. He found her to be especially eager to please and silly enough to keep us all entertained. We’ve had her for eight years now, and we still talk about that worm-ridden, flea-infested mutt that God brought into our lives. She is such a dog and brings us so much joy. She’s also really photogenic!
Jeremiah 29 KJV:
12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Lord, teach us to depend on You for everything! You care about the smallest matters in our lives, and we’ve got to trust that You care about the biggest ones, too! Help us to lean on You in every situation. Thank you for being so intimately involved with Your creation!
