Leap year reactions

Learning to delight in the little things and find positive rewards in life’s moments

The other day we had a random lunch date with our daughters, and grand-daughter. The little one spent much of the meal hugging on the elders rather than eating. Her sweet touches and loves were enough to burst our hearts. But she was the one that let a moment of pleasure ring out across the restaurant. Her little voice emptied the silence when she declared “Oh, yeah!” -at her delight in the french fries. If only we could all declare such delight in spontaneous form.

My days in solitude are numerous. Having a dog in my presence fills the void sometimes with unexpected canine reactions. Honey is not as reactive as some others I have witnessed. So I spent the last month or so watching all the dog training shows on my Prime account that I can find. The rescue shows can be pretty disheartening, so I learned to avoid those. Besides there are children with higher value that need more attention than all those dogs out there. The multiple dog homes about drive me up a tree. I feel like a raccoon just trying to rest and the coon hound is circling. One dog seems to be an abnormality. Wow! Some times there is just too much “muchness!”

Makes me glad I only have one dog. Besides my eyesight has about all it can handle with just one. Playing canine games with Honey takes about 20 minutes out of my day. We do the walk and outside, and frisbee, and all the Happy squeaky ball fetch. But Find toy is her most rewarding. She is exhausted after about ten retrieves, and then I can sit down without interruption.

Of course naming each toy that we play with for Find is very important. I don’t think she’ll ever be as good at naming all of her toys as Furbie was, but she only has one trainer. Dad does not play this game. He’s more of an armchair dog handler. No apologies. It’s the truth.

We are looking for a harness that would fit her. She has a medium girth, but her shoulder/breast length is so small. I hope that when I do get her into one again this spring, she will make the connection to “work.” Right now when I try to do the guide commands with just a leash, she is just to hyperactive. I have even tried frisbee first and then the guide time training. She just wants to follow when on the leash too much. The handkerchief over my eyes when a nice day arrives should help.

Maybe I just don’t trust her much. She probably senses that.

This week we had an ambulance instance in the family. While all is well for now, it has put the family all on communicative overdrive. Just trying to keep everyone informed and at peace with all the goings on… We are praying more specifically as the call merits.

The warmer spring weather is on it’s way, along with the mud. A little flurries overnight left the pebbles sticking to the bottom of shoes again. More cleaning, and more dipping paws into the clean pail.

Yesterday it was almost warm enough for my grand-daughter to video chat with the horse! See how I rate. She starts asking about Coco before I even get a chance to say hello some days! The horse does love to ham it up on the phone, in videos or pictures. But the poor boy forgot about the electric fence between us and got angry enough at me that he would not turn around again. We had to turn the fence on because there is a young doe sleeping in our grove. I see her about every other day. This morning we actually did some scent chasing and I let Honey follow her trail about a quarter mile to the south. She is pretty brave. But has not knocked the fence down since we turned it back on.

From all the animals around to the house cleaning, my life stays boringly consistent. I finished another crochet project, but I really do not like it. It might be a stay home thing or another redo.

My thoughts and prayers have gravitated more towards children in need lately as I watch all of the dog-hype shows. It saddens me that people spend so much money on canine toddlers and less on children. The humane society advertisements to sponsor pet saving is just so over-rated. We have kids within my fifty mile radius living in such poverty. The passage that seems to fit the best comes from Matthew chapter fifteen and verse 26:

“And Jesus answered, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.'”

This leap year we are jumping forward over a new challenge. For twenty some years we have sponsored a child through the ministry of Compassion International. We chose them because over 95% of the money goes to the child’s needs. And the majority of the program is teaching the child about Jesus. Our sponsored child from Dominican Republic has moved out of the system. Sponsoring her cost less than our pet food each month. I think we will sponsor two children next.