I was telling my Grandma about my week this morning and was AMAZED at the easy flow everything took on and thought I'd share :)
Sunday, I went to my local APL (Animal Protective League/Humane Society) and adopted a dog. I've been wanting a small beagle and decided to "allow" one to come into my life. I woke up Sunday morning and realized the date was 1-11 and it was a full moon and I felt drawn to the APL so I went. There... in cage #11 was the cutest 4 yr old male beagle named Copper (This was the name of a dog we USED to have). He was exactly what I wanted. Older, so no puppy issues like peeing and chewing... fixed.. not jumpy or licky.. calm, pleasant and affectionate. I took these facts ALL as signs and adopted him and brought him home.
After he was here about an hour, I took him outside to do his business and he slipped his leash and ran due west at break neck speed. I ended up trudging through knee deep snow in sigle digit temps for over an hour looking for him. Then I drove around my "Country" neighborhood for an hour looking for him. He was nowhere to be found. I was SOOOO bummed, but I said a prayer for him to be healthy and happy and safe and went home.
Monday, my 6 year old son was sick. He went to school but came home that night with a low fever and looking mighty pale. My boy has a history of hallucinating when he's sick. This is somewhat common among young children and the doctor assures me it will pass with age. But, in the meantime, it can be quite un-nerving for me to console a frightened, hallucinating child.
He was fevered and ill and home from school Tuesday, Wednesday AND Thursday. Wednesday night he spiked a fever of 103 degrees and I gave him a dose of ibuprophen to bring it down. One hour later, it had not only NOT gone down, but had climbed to 104.3. In a bit of a panic, at 10:30pm, we got in the van and went to the emergency room.
They chased the ibuprophen with some Tylenol and his temp came down quickly and he perked up. They ran some tests and did a chest x-ray and concluded that he just has a flu virus and it will pass in a few days. We got back home at 2am.
I put him in bed and layed awake for hours visualizing a cool healing blue energy surrounding him. He woke up Thursday morning bright eyed and bushy tailed. No sign of fever at all. He still has a little cough, but for the most part, he's made an amazingly fast recovery.
He wanted to go to school Thursday, but I told him he needed to stay home and rest and get a little more healthy before going back. He accepted this, but asked if we could go see about getting another dog. I've called the APL everyday since Copper left and no one has brought him back. I alerted all my neighbors so if he was spotted, someone would grab him and know where he belongs, but it'd been 4 days and I'd given up hope. So... we went back to the APL to see about getting a different dog.
We found a very nice dog and decided to adopt. He wasn't a beagle like I'd wanted, but he was very sweet and calm and my son liked him. The woman there had me fill out the adoption paper, then told me that due to what had just happened with Copper, they weren't going to ALLOW me to bring this dog home. She said she'd hold him for 24 hours and I should go home and make sure this is what I really wanted. They treated me as though I was a bad person because of what had happened and as though it were my fault.
I felt humiliated and angry. All I wanted was to rescue and love a dog and they were gunna point fingers at me because the dog I got ran away?! They were the one's that named him when he came in so he didn't even respond to his name when I called to him! What was I supposed to have done!? So I left.
I came home mad. I stewed for a while and bitched about it. Then I let it go. I decided.... well, they don't know me... and I'm not going to let their stupid judgement of me keep me from having a dog. We went about our normal evening business of dinner and homework and tv. My Hubby got called out to tow a car and left. He came home about 2 hours later.. walked through the door and said, "Look who I found!" and set Copper on the floor!
As he was pulling in the driveway, the son of one of our neightbors pulled up in a car and said, "Are you the guy missing a beagle?" He had him there in his car and gave him back.
I was recounting these events to my Gram and I really started thinking about it all. It would've been REALLY difficult for me to take care of a new dog while tending my sick child all week.
New dogs need extra attention and walks etc.. and I just wouldn't have been able to do it. THEN I realized.... if the APL hadn't made me wait 24 hours, I'd have ended up with 2 dogs here last night. THEN I'd have had to take one of them back to the APL today which would've just broke my heart.
I think it's even made a difference for Copper, who's name has been changed to Charlie, because he was out and cold and hungry for FOUR whole days. Now he's here and we're loving on him and feeding him and he's warm again. He seems to already be attached to us now when before, he didn't seem to care much. And finally, I'm right up against lake Erie in NE Ohio. We're having a MAJOR cold spell as of last night. It got all the way down to - 10 last night with windchills down to -40. He couldn't have come home out of the cold at a better time.
It all worked out in the most perfect way even though I couldn't see the perfection of it from the beginning. I managed to have faith through it all that everything was exactly as it should be and would work out fine and I'm happy to report that it did.
I know some people around here have a hard time believing that "bad" things happen and end up being a good thing in the end... and although this might not be a HUGE life altering thing, it was important to me and my family... and now, I'm finding myself not only grateful that my son is better and my dog is home... but grateful that everything happened exacly as it did. It was perfectly orchistrated to turn out in a way that was best for everyone involved.
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