Aug. 9, 2010
FURRY FRIENDS: The Dachshund And The Dragonfly
By Sherri Lee Hale
My Dachshund, Sammie, was barking frantically in the backyard as I was getting ready for bed. The barking was nothing new because he enjoyed patrolling our fenced in backyard, but the frantic, non-stop pace with which he was going at it caused me to stop what I was doing in order to seek him out.
When I found him just outside our sliding glass doors, he was pawing at the ground around a dead dragonfly. As I watched him, I realized that every time his paw would accidentally hit and move the dragonfly, he would jerk backwards and go into another frenzied barking spree. When he finally realized that I had come to his rescue he immediately became braver at my presence and started pawing in earnest at the dead insect.
I explained that the dragonfly was dead, picked Sammie up and brought him into the house and gave him a treat. He mindlessly gobbled the treat down at the same time that he headed towards the doggie door and back out into the yard. There he took up his post where he had left off with the giant fly before I had interrupted him.
When I realized that he wouldn't stop as long as the dragonfly was still in sight, I talked my husband, Johnny, into scooping the fly into a plastic grocery bag which he threw over the rod iron fence into the front yard where he planned to leave it until morning. Once that was done, I picked up Sammie again and put him in bed with Johnny and me. Unfortunately, that only brought a moment of silence before the single-minded wiener dog jumped off the bed, headed out the doggie door and once again took up his vigilant post on the other side of the gate where he could see the plastic bag containing the fly.
Johnny, knowing that he wouldn't get any sleep until the matter was resolved went outside and disposed of the bag, making absolutely sure that it was out of Sammie's sight. As I lay in bed that night thinking of Sammie getting so worked up about a non-issue, I could feel God's presence in the room. I'd just found out that day that my mom had breast cancer. She was scheduled to have a biopsy and because of the type of cancer, the doctor was convinced that they would have to do a mastectomy. Other tests done on her heart and lungs and cervix were also showing that something was wrong. We feared that perhaps cancer had spread throughout her body. I wasn't even sure what to pray.
God impressed on me at that moment that my mom's situation was like the dead dragonfly and that He had already taken care of it. In that moment I was convinced that just like Sammie, I had nothing to worry about.
That weekend we flew home to see my mom before her surgery and by the time we arrived, she had gotten phone calls regarding all of the tests except for the breast cancer informing her of good news. Then, when they went in for the biopsy, the cancer was different than they thought and they were able to remove the cancer without a mastectomy.
As He had impressed on me that night, God had seemingly put all of our worries into a plastic bag and thrown them over the fence.
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FURRY FRIENDS: The Dachshund And The Dragonfly
By Sherri Lee Hale
My Dachshund, Sammie, was barking frantically in the backyard as I was getting ready for bed. The barking was nothing new because he enjoyed patrolling our fenced in backyard, but the frantic, non-stop pace with which he was going at it caused me to stop what I was doing in order to seek him out.
When I found him just outside our sliding glass doors, he was pawing at the ground around a dead dragonfly. As I watched him, I realized that every time his paw would accidentally hit and move the dragonfly, he would jerk backwards and go into another frenzied barking spree. When he finally realized that I had come to his rescue he immediately became braver at my presence and started pawing in earnest at the dead insect.
I explained that the dragonfly was dead, picked Sammie up and brought him into the house and gave him a treat. He mindlessly gobbled the treat down at the same time that he headed towards the doggie door and back out into the yard. There he took up his post where he had left off with the giant fly before I had interrupted him.
When I realized that he wouldn't stop as long as the dragonfly was still in sight, I talked my husband, Johnny, into scooping the fly into a plastic grocery bag which he threw over the rod iron fence into the front yard where he planned to leave it until morning. Once that was done, I picked up Sammie again and put him in bed with Johnny and me. Unfortunately, that only brought a moment of silence before the single-minded wiener dog jumped off the bed, headed out the doggie door and once again took up his vigilant post on the other side of the gate where he could see the plastic bag containing the fly.
Johnny, knowing that he wouldn't get any sleep until the matter was resolved went outside and disposed of the bag, making absolutely sure that it was out of Sammie's sight. As I lay in bed that night thinking of Sammie getting so worked up about a non-issue, I could feel God's presence in the room. I'd just found out that day that my mom had breast cancer. She was scheduled to have a biopsy and because of the type of cancer, the doctor was convinced that they would have to do a mastectomy. Other tests done on her heart and lungs and cervix were also showing that something was wrong. We feared that perhaps cancer had spread throughout her body. I wasn't even sure what to pray.
God impressed on me at that moment that my mom's situation was like the dead dragonfly and that He had already taken care of it. In that moment I was convinced that just like Sammie, I had nothing to worry about.
That weekend we flew home to see my mom before her surgery and by the time we arrived, she had gotten phone calls regarding all of the tests except for the breast cancer informing her of good news. Then, when they went in for the biopsy, the cancer was different than they thought and they were able to remove the cancer without a mastectomy.
As He had impressed on me that night, God had seemingly put all of our worries into a plastic bag and thrown them over the fence.
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