I copied the following from Shauna Morris of Clearwater, FL (Bless
her!). A little over a week ago, she left her home and drove to
Oklahoma City to rescue a redbone coonhound from a kill shelter. She
posted this observation this morning:
Things I learned this weekend in the process of bringing home my first foster hound dog:
A) When you are crazy enough to drive 2,600 miles to rescue a starving, sick, young coonhound you get blessed in so many ways!
B)
Love will literally raise the dead. When we freed her from the pound
this little gal had given up, she had no life left in her hollow eyes,
she was completely withdrawn. I have seen animals who are done, and she
was done. However, with a little love, the kindness of strangers and
relatives, and an understanding vet, she turned around in less than a
week. She is now playing with other dogs, snuggling with her humans,
and wagging her tail nonstop!
C) When you
set out to do even a small act of kindness people you meet along the
way will in turn be kind to you. They may think you are insane but they
will smile while they are shaking their heads, and they will, I do
believe, “pass it on” in some way or another!
D)
When you set out to do good God will place others in your path in need
of blessing, like the young man we met working late, late, late at
Subways somewhere in the Florida Panhandle. A customer got on to him
for being curt and he broke down and explained that his house and all
his possessions had burned to the ground that afternoon, but he had to
work because he desperately needed the money. He did not want a hand
out, but he did accept clothing we had packed for our trip because all
he had left were the cloths on his back, and when he wanted to know why
we helped him all I could say, so as not to break sown and sob, was
“God bless you!” There was a boy on his own struggling to make it,
working hard to keep it together, and not asking for anything, not even
believing strangers would want to help him even the tiny bit we could
help him! God bless him indeed!
E) The
mutual love of dogs brought two loved ones together in my life that
have not spoken to each other in years. When the visit with the rescue
hound was done the one said to the other “you are welcome in my house
anytime” and that is actually a miracle!
F)
A starving young dog brought life back into my 89 year old father’s
eyes. He has been very depressed and angry at life. That little
dejected hound brought compassion bubbling up and enabled him to look
outside his own situation to another being in need. He insisted on
paying for the emergency vet visit and comforted the young hound as the
vet examined and treated her. I found him each morning in the rocking
chair on the porch petting that dog who instinctively knew how much
that old man cared for her and wanted her to make it. I know he would
have adopted her on the spot if he could have, and today the first
thing he asked me over the phone was how was she doing :)
G)
Another relative who hates dogs because she was attacked by one as a
child will nevertheless give shelter to a starving hound because her son
and grandchild ask it, and somewhere along the way that gentile dog
might just have won over another person who is now also rooting for
her.
H) When you are on your way to
rescue a life, even if it is “just a dog” you will pull together as a
family, you will get along even when you are exhausted, hungry and fed
up, and you will make it work for the sake of that life, that may not
be a human life but is nevertheless precious to God.
I) when
you risk a little, love a lot, and reach out to a living being who is
suffering, you always get back so much more than you could possibly
ever give :)
___________