The Great Dog Rescue

I know it sounds like a movie title, but it is a true story that happened in our family a couple of weeks ago.

It was a cold, rainy day. Jacob had soccer practice and I had kind of hoped that they would cancel it, but when I didn't get a phone call I bundled Jacob up and headed to the park for practice. When we got to the park there was not a single car in the parking lot. I'm thinking, "OK, practice must have been canceled." (We signed Jacob up late and I wasn't sure if the coach had all our contact info.) Anyway, I pulled into the parking lot to turn around and head home when Jill yelled, "Mom, STOP! There are some dogs!" Now my sweet Jill is an animal lover. Always has been and I'm sure always will be. I looked over and sure enough there were 3 small dogs standing in the cold, wet rain. Jill jumped out and ran to them. The rest of the kids soon followed. They picked up 2 of the dogs who were shivering like crazy. One of the dogs ran away and we could tell that it had hurt one of its paws. Jill ran after it and ended up following it into a huge puddle that covered one of the soccer fields. She literally waded in to get him.

Now, I'm standing there thinking, "What in the heck am I going to do with these dogs?" They didn't have tags or identification of any kind. Of course, I knew the kids were going to say, "Can we keep them?", but I knew there was no way we could. So I tracked down the Animal Control number and gave them a call. They said they would send someone right out. So we waited and I knew my kids were falling in love. They were naming them and everything. I kept saying, "Don't name them, we can't keep them."

After about a 1/2 hour, a police officer showed up to inform me that animal control is done with their rounds for the day and wouldn't be available until 8:30 the next morning. So again I'm asking myself, "What am I going to do with these dogs?" I'm told my options are: #1 Take them to an outdoor kennel where they will be outside with no shelter, food or water and animal control will pick them up in the morning, #2 Take them home for the night and animal control will pick them up in the morning or #3 Let them go and hope they find their way home.

Well, I can quickly see that letting them stay outside all night is not an option. So we brought them home. Luckily, my sister had a dog crate that we borrowed and the dogs slept in over night. Of course the kids fell in love with them. Unfortunately, these little guys didn't like our dog at all. They barked and went crazy every time she was even in sight of the crate. So we had to leave the crate in the garage. On the bright side, the kids could quickly see that it wouldn't work out to keep them and so they quit asking.

We had them one night and then animal control came and picked them up.

Even though I wasn't super happy about bringing these dogs home with us, it taught me a lot. It wasn't convenient at all, but it was the right thing to do. How often is true service convenient? Nevertheless, it was important to help. I was also very moved by the compassion my children showed. They were such an example to me. I watched Jill wade into cold water to save the dog and then Jacob took his jacket off and wrapped this little cold, injured dog in it. My heart melted. I was proud of them. We truly all should become as little children. Such love, compassion and selfless service. Good job, kids!!!