Saturday, March 17, 2018

All Creatures.....Some Really Small.



* Update on Moose

After Larry passed away little Moose would run to his chair several times a day  looking for him.
Sometimes she'd sit by the door waiting.
It broke my heart. But it reminded me of blessings.

You see, one morning not long before he passed, Kelley was taking her dad to the doctor. She noticed him gently stroking his knee continually.
She asked, "Dad, what are you doing?"
He looked down and said in mild surprise, "Oh sorry..... just petting the dog."

That's what happened for hours each day. Dog petting.
I wonder who was comforted the most?

Now Moose rides in the front basket of my electric cart.
My cart is a huge blessing for which I'm extremely grateful, by the way.
Moose hates being cold so she's wrapped in a nest of blankets with only her little head sticking out.
We go everywhere like this. Even places where she's not allowed.  I just cover her up so that only her eyes show.
The girls bought her a little harness that says "Service Dog" but I don't feel it's honest. They say, "Sure it is, Ma. She's an official Crazy Old Lady Who's Finally Lost It, service dog. We can certify."

So, I've become the old lady on the cart with the little brown dog. Tooling around the neighborhood, Walmart and Loew's.
Believe me I never thought my life would come to this.

But, to be honest, there are advantages.
I can fetch and carry many things for people, easily saving time and steps. Too, on good days I can put in a 10 hour day and at the end of it my feet don't hurt. And I once beat the grandkids to Toontown on a Disney trip.  Life is full of  tender mercies. Just look for them.

So Moose has now become my constant companion.
A gift from Larry who was her first choice.
And when I reach inside her nest on the cart basket to be sure she's warm, she always turns to lick me.

 I wonder who's comforted most.


"And I, God, made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and everything which creepeth upon the earth after his kind; And I, God, saw that all these things were good."          Moses 2: 24-25                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
" The tender mercies of the Lord are over all,"           1 Nephi 1:20                                                                                                                                                                       


*Original Post     


All Creaures...Some Really Small
************

I've never been a "dog person" really.
I've always thought cats were less trouble for the most part.
Until recently I never met a dog that didn't cause me some kind of grief.
Usually this grief involves my having more work to do and less money to spend. Come to think of it I still haven't met one that doesn't cause more work and less money.

I know a lot about that dog grief thing too.
How? Because all of my married life we've had dogs. And more than one at a time too.
Why, you say?
Because, you see, even though I'm not, Larry definitely IS a dog person.  He's had dogs since he was a boy, and they've always had him.

Well, as we all know, marriage is often about compromise.
So, to be fair to me, Larry reluctantly compromised and said we could have cats to go along with the dogs and children.
And I was elected to be responsible for the care and feeding of all of them, including Larry.

Now something's happened concerning a dog that I'm almost reluctant to tell you. It's out of character for me and I'm afraid that people will think that I've become delusional along with whatever else I've become.
But I'm not delusional yet, and I was so touched that I must tell you about it.

You see, last night, an aging, nondescript, sometimes annoying little brown dog with one white spot, went out of her way to show compassion towards a being not even of her same species.
That species being human. That human being me.
And compassion it was, there was no mistaking it for anything else. Which leads to a whole lot of other deep animal questions to think about later.

Let me tell you about the dog.
She was rescued as a teeny, tiny pup by my son-in-law who found her while he was working in an empty house. He heard pitiful cries and went to help. She fit in the palm of his hand and was not even old enough to have been weaned. He checked with neighbors with no luck.
Being a compassionate yet smart man, he didn't take it home to his wife and seven kids. He knew a great truth was found in that old saying, "There's no such thing as a free puppy."
So instead he took it to his sisters-in-law.
Just as he'd figured, they immediately rushed it to the vet, paid the bill, and then stopped off at the nearest pet market to buy hundreds of dollars of dog stuff, most of it in pink. Included were little bottles of expensive dog formula which the vet recommended feeding every three hours round the clock for some weeks. This was years ago.

Well, that little pup grew into the smallest chihuahua-mutt-mix princess the vets had ever seen every six months for regular shots and check-ups. The girls named her "Daisy."
These daughters felt that Daisy and her border collie sibling, (another rescue), would be lonely if left alone too long, so they dropped them off early each morning to spend weekdays with us while the girls were teaching.
Larry, however, refused to have a dog in the house with such a "wuusie" name as Daisy.
So he renamed her "Moose."

Well, Moose is now older. She stays with us full-time while our dog Murphy, who is still an adolescent in dog years, and therefore trouble, stays with our daughters, who can handle trouble better than we can now.

Moose has a little pillow kept right between Larry and I on our bed where she sleeps at night. She has her own favorite blankets. She hates being cold so several times a night I reach in to her little nest to make sure she's warm and covered.

Well, sad to say, I now have geezer issues which cause pain whenever I move.
Last night I was trying to get more comfortable in bed and was attempting a turn which caused some moans of distress. After much tribulation I finally got settled.

As soon as I did, a sleepy little brown dog with one white spot emerged from her warm nest.
She came over to me, licked my arm exactly twice, turned around and went back inside the blankets to her bed.
There was no mistaking the message.
I knew instantly what those licks meant.
She was saying, "There, there. You're okay now. Go back to sleep."

Tender mercies.

I guess Father sends them in lots of ways.

Today I'm thankful for all his creatures great and small.
Once in the middle of a dark night a very small one brought comfort to me.


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