Every year, right about now, it becomes very evident (and quite pertinent,) to me just how blessed we are in life. This year is no different, but it came to me in a different fashion this week.
Bear with me…Yesterday after running errands, I had to make several trips into the house and back to the car. During that time, our chocolate lab, Kuma, trotted outside and sniffed around like she usually does. This is our routine. Thinking she had already gone in, as she generally does, I came back in the house and worked for a couple of hours before leaving to pick up Ethan from school. Without realizing it, I had locked our sweet, spoiled dog out of the house without her collar on hours earlier. This, however, did not hit me until I left to pick Ethan up from school and leave for a doctor’s appointment in Plano. Yikes!
I couldn’t find her and the horror of what I had done hit me hard.
For hours we did not know where Kuma was. One of our neighbors quickly sent out an e-mail to other neighbors and allowed her kids to go on the hunt for Kuma while Ethan and I went to our appointment. Note: Herein lies my “I am so blessed” realization #1! How nice is it to know that I can pick up the phone, call a neighbor/friend to ask her to keep an eye out, and hear later about how they jumped into action? I am so thankful!
When Ethan and I got home, and Greg had been searching for an hour and a half, I quickly made some flyers and hit the street to knock on doors. No one had seen her but we already had MANY kind people watching for Kuma.
I went to bed hours later with dread in my belly. Ethan did, too, apparently. He awoke very upset in the middle of the night and came running to our bed. Only at breakfast did I find out that Ethan had dreamed that Kuma was hit by a car and killed. That was my worst fear, too, but no six year old should have to endure such dreams.
By mid-morning we had news that some wonderfully kind neighbors near the elementary school had found Kuma yesterday afternoon during a walk in the park with their dog. Since she was collar-less and ultra-friendly, (and because she followed them back to their front door,) they let her come in and stay the night. She was warm and well-fed last night and I am so thankful!
These people, who didn’t know us, nor have they ever met our dog, took her in when they were battling their seven-month-old’s first ear infection with a 102 degree fever. Since animal control said that they would take her but could only keep her for three days, these generous neighbors believed that Kuma deserved more and were planning to keep her as long as necessary to find her real home. They were working on a flyer themselves when Greg contacted them this morning! Again, I am so thankful.
Ethan and I often listen to Jack Johnson in the car, and one of the songs we sing along with regularly lately has a refrain of “Where have all the good people gone…?”
I can tell you, there is a whole family of “good people” living on Seguin, (just a street behind us) and two more really “good people” live on the corner of Honey Grove and Yoakum Drive in Frisco, Texas.
I AM THANKFUL!
This is our “pretty girl, Kuma.”
