The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;
For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever. Psalm 23
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This has been a pretty rough week. Hope started throwing up on Thursday afternoon; I figured she’d gotten a noseful of something nasty after digging in the wet leaves several times. I called a friend of mine who works at our vet’s office, and she said to give her clear liquids and hopefully it would work itself out; watch her and bring her in if she’s not better. She did seem better on Friday til late, when it started again; we started pushing gatorade and chicken noodle soup and water to make sure she stayed hydrated but by Sunday morning she was pretty weak – all she wanted to do was hide from us, or sit hunched up like she was terrified. The vet gave her a shot to stop the throwing up, which worked but she still was not feeling good, so we took her down first thing Monday- and the dreaded “P” word was spoken.
They said they thought we’d caught it in time- keep pushing liquids, keep her quiet and just love on her.
Tuesday morning I took her back to the vet’s office and they kept her all day, giving her a couple IVs of fluids. when we picked her up that afternoon, they said she’d actually eaten and drank some on her own – they were surprised she had bounced back so quickly; they wanted us to watch her and just make sure she was offered food and water, but don’t push.
Last night, she played with the kittens and stood up on her back legs to ask me to pick her up. She’s even better this morning, trying to roll with the kittens and playing, although she’s still weak and gets tired quick. As she builds back up, that will take care of itself.
These are the facts about what was happening – now I’m gonna tell you what was going on in my mind:
I did a lot of praying and crying while all this was going on- I know that parvo can be a death sentence to puppies, especially if they aren’t healthy to begin with; I felt like she had the advantage of being healthy and well fed; but I made the mistake of looking it up and found out that it can also cause permanent damage to the heart muscle because of the stress it causes on the body.
I begged God – please don’t take this puppy. I got mad- I told God He allowed Tank (my pit baby) to not get well, even after all the begging and praying I’d done; I wanted to remind Him that I had prayed and begged for Him to allow Daddy and my brother Jimmy to stay a while longer; I wanted to say, “Is this how You treat the people who are trying to serve You?”
I wanted to say that… but as the words were forming in my mouth to shout them out, while cradling that sweet little puppy in my arms, I heard Him ask me, “Is the outcome of this going to change whether you serve Me or not? If I take her, are you still going to serve me?”
My tongue froze in my mouth – I knew that I was at a crossroads and the next words I spoke or thought would make all the difference in the world.
I relaxed the fists that my hands had become, and I cried out to the Father who loves us more than we love ourselves. I told Him that no matter what, whether Hope lived or died, I would keep doing what He gives me to do.
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Hope says, “When Mom got home last night, she and I were both so cold that we had to snuggle under the blankets and watch TV. This is my buddy Fonda who wanted to help warm me up. Somebody please tell Mom that I don’t want any more Gatorade or chicken noodle soup. Just dog food please.”
