Another Canine Blessing from Above

I had multiple SERIOUS blog post ideas for this week, but as I got ready to sit down and write, I realized I just couldn’t go down that road.  The reason for the switcheroo is pretty obvious by the photo above.

My post a few weeks ago was heartbreaking as I shared about the sudden and unexpected cancer which led to the devastating decision to put down my precious Daisy.  And how God gave me one last lesson through her death.

While I have been pretty active on my Facebook page with stories and pictures of this new little arrival, I haven’t done justice to that story here on my blog post.  I set that problem straight today!

Let me share a little bit about how this all came to be and then, of course, there will be lessons in this story.

The night after I had to put Daisy down, I was understandably inconsolable and not able to sleep…at all.  One of the websites I visit on a regular basis is the one I found ten years ago which led to the phenomenon called Daisy.

In the past few years, this breeder has only been selling purebred French Bulldogs for around $4,000.  So, I don’t go here with any intentions of buying a dog.  I just like to look around and see how cute their puppies are. So, I visited the site during my sleepless night. This particular visit featured a couple of adorable Frenchie puppies that were still out of my price range.

For some reason, I decided to also click on the tab for their Freedom babies – the cross between a French Bulldog and a Boston Terrier.  Imagine my surprise when there were two adorable puppies available here – one of which was named Maisy.  Anyone notice yet that her name rhymes with Daisy?

The next morning I called the breeder as soon as I thought she would be up and told her, through my tears, about the precious pup we got from her ten years ago, and what an amazing dog Daisy was.  I asked if Maisy was still available and of course she was!  I say “of course” because she was intended to be my next baby.  I would go from Daisy Mae to Maisy Dae. 😊

I sent in the deposit that day.  I made a visit with my pastor’s family a few weeks later to meet her in person.  Let’s just say she didn’t disappoint.  Three weeks later, I made a second trip and came home with this bundle of joy.

There’s truly not enough room in this blog post to tell you have amazing Maisy is.  She goes from being a big-time snuggler to being a fearless spitfire.  From the moment we walked into the house, she took command of it.  Sorry, Winnie, I guess you WON’T get a chance to be the alpha in the house…

She slept through the night from Day One and has done probably 85-90% of her “bathroom jobs” outside.  She makes me laugh not just every day, but virtually every ten minutes!  I’m so blessed to be her new mama.

So, enough of the story background.  Let’s look at a few lessons, or maybe just reminders, that God has given me through this journey.

• Joy and sorrow STILL co-exist in this fallen world. Daily I shed tears over the loss of my bigger-than-life Daisy.  I’m tearing up even as I write this.  I hurt deeply over the loss of my sweet girl who will forever be at or near the top of the pets I’ve been blessed to have.  But, oh the incredible joy of this precious Maisy.  I smile almost all day long because of her presence in my life.  Yep, the concept applies to the world of pet ownership, too.
• God cares about the smallest details in our lives. For any of you who believe that a great big God can’t be bothered by something as insignificant as a new pet for one of the billions of people who have or are living on this earth, think again.  God absolutely cares about those details.  And not only does he care about them, but he also sovereignly orchestrates those details because he loves his children.  He chose the PERFECT “healer” for me.
• We have to trust God when we don’t understand his ways.  I can tell you I pleaded with God with as much intensity as I could muster as the diagnosis for Daisy was looking bleaker and bleaker.  My exact words – “Oh God, please, please, please don’t take my Daisy!!!”  But I guess like every other “possession” we have in this life, none of them are truly ours.  Whether it’s pets or relationships or possessions or talents or riches of any kind, they all ultimately are gifts from God.  They belong FIRST to him.  So he has the merciful authority to do with them as he sees best.  I’ll never understand in this life why he chose to end her life through cancer.  But as I’ve learned through many trials, my response to God has been, “God, I hate this.  But I trust you.”  It’s ultimately  the only place I can land.
• Sin taints every part of our lives. At the risk of ending with a fairly discouraging lesson, it’s a truth that we mustn’t ignore.  Honestly, it would be nearly impossible to ignore as we look at the heartache and dysfunction and suffering so prevalent in our world.  We see it through powerful “natural” disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, fires, and tsunamis, to name a few.  But we also see it in the tiniest details of our lives.  Like losing Daisy to cancer.  NOTHING escapes the corruption of sin.  As hard as it is to live out this reality, greater still is the promise God makes to us to restore all things in the end.  I hang my hat – and my hope – on that guarantee from Almighty God.  If you have placed your hope in Jesus’ finished work on the cross, then your eternity will wipe out any heartache you’ve endured in this life.

I couldn’t be more grateful for God’s gift of Maisy to me, and I trust him to give me more life lessons to share with all of you because of her presence in my world.  Stay tuned!

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace,

who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ,

will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

1 Peter 5:10