Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Humanely Euthanized
I have a special dog. She is the 2nd dog I've owned as an adult (we still have the first one) but this dog is mine.
We rescued her from the local SPCA (like almost all of our dogs)and we can only speculate that she was wild and feral -- but not aggressive. We had her for a good month before we ever heard her 'voice'.
She has two barks. A high yippy one when she wants to go after the local cats, squirrels & rabbits, and a protective one, like when another dog ran up on me and the wife, she went all cugo -- pretty scary. But she has never shown any aggression to me.
Her only real faults are that she is an escape artist able to slip almost any harness, we've tried 4 kinds, even the tuff ones like this:
Her latest escape (successful - sigh) was this morning... but I was able to find her and get her in the house safely...
When I left today for work, Shadow and Orre were in the house already and Janice was walking Chaka and Sara.
I've been working with her and she responds so well to 'home' and 'in' that I got rid of the choke collar, and got her a regular pretty colar and a nice harness. What I didn't know is that everytime my wife has to bring Chaka in the house she basically has to drag her across the threshold...
so she slipped the harness. I also think it's my fault for driving away while she was outside, I think she was trying to find me.
I was watching animal planet last night and two shows featured Chaka's mix. She's an Australian Cattle Dog mixed with German Shepherd. On one of the shows the outcome was good. The were able to capture her and get her spayed and she lived happily on the horse farm.
The other one, from a back yard in Philly, she was like my Chaka but fearful and aggressive. So they had to have her Humanely Euthanized...
those words are with me this morning. They were with me as I watched my Chaka run across a 4 lane highway to my car (thank you Father, Son & Holy Ghost she did NOT get hit).. as I wondered why this dog, who I adored and who adored me and my family kept trying to run away.
When we adopt a dog, we make a commitment to ourselves, the dog and God to make this a forever home for the dog. This means that even when we get frustrated with their not eating, not listening..
..running away. We don't give up. And I think, if not for me, Chaka would probably have been put to sleep. humanely euthanized...
and I think if not for God...
where would I be? would I be 'adoptable?' would I have been able to find a 'forever home?'
and what is hell? is it God's way of 'humanely euthanizing' those who won't accept him but he doesn't destroy them because he doesn't want to give up on even the least of these?
I dunno. But this morning, I'm glad I have my Dog.
And I'm glad God has me.
We rescued her from the local SPCA (like almost all of our dogs)and we can only speculate that she was wild and feral -- but not aggressive. We had her for a good month before we ever heard her 'voice'.
She has two barks. A high yippy one when she wants to go after the local cats, squirrels & rabbits, and a protective one, like when another dog ran up on me and the wife, she went all cugo -- pretty scary. But she has never shown any aggression to me.
Her only real faults are that she is an escape artist able to slip almost any harness, we've tried 4 kinds, even the tuff ones like this:
Her latest escape (successful - sigh) was this morning... but I was able to find her and get her in the house safely...
When I left today for work, Shadow and Orre were in the house already and Janice was walking Chaka and Sara.
I've been working with her and she responds so well to 'home' and 'in' that I got rid of the choke collar, and got her a regular pretty colar and a nice harness. What I didn't know is that everytime my wife has to bring Chaka in the house she basically has to drag her across the threshold...
so she slipped the harness. I also think it's my fault for driving away while she was outside, I think she was trying to find me.
I was watching animal planet last night and two shows featured Chaka's mix. She's an Australian Cattle Dog mixed with German Shepherd. On one of the shows the outcome was good. The were able to capture her and get her spayed and she lived happily on the horse farm.
The other one, from a back yard in Philly, she was like my Chaka but fearful and aggressive. So they had to have her Humanely Euthanized...
those words are with me this morning. They were with me as I watched my Chaka run across a 4 lane highway to my car (thank you Father, Son & Holy Ghost she did NOT get hit).. as I wondered why this dog, who I adored and who adored me and my family kept trying to run away.
When we adopt a dog, we make a commitment to ourselves, the dog and God to make this a forever home for the dog. This means that even when we get frustrated with their not eating, not listening..
..running away. We don't give up. And I think, if not for me, Chaka would probably have been put to sleep. humanely euthanized...
and I think if not for God...
where would I be? would I be 'adoptable?' would I have been able to find a 'forever home?'
and what is hell? is it God's way of 'humanely euthanizing' those who won't accept him but he doesn't destroy them because he doesn't want to give up on even the least of these?
I dunno. But this morning, I'm glad I have my Dog.
And I'm glad God has me.
