Adventure in Kariland

My life is always an adventure.  There is rarely a dull moment in my life.  Matter of fact, if you ever need action and entertainment, just come spend a few days with me.  Everything that could go wrong does, if something simple cannot get messed up, just throw it at me and I can assure you it will.  I think God has a funny way of always getting and keeping my attention.  The past several weeks would astound you to hear all my stories and I swear they are true, but I will just tell you one, I think you will like it!

My husband is the Great White Hunter.  He went on an elk hunt in Denver, Colorado last week. While he was gone, the children and I thought we would take a little vacation ourselves and go visit with all the grandparents and cousins in Georgia.  We always eat out good food, shop, sit around and talk, kids play on dangerous yard equipment with my dad, and many more fun great things while we are in Georgia.  This trip started out no different.

My nephew gets off the school bus at my parents house and as he was walking up the driveway, he was excited to see us outside.  My little four year old, Karis, was drawing with sidewalk chalk and I was cleaning off the nastiness on the stroller- it really needed a car wash!  My baby was inside sleeping and I thought we were all accounted for there in the driveway.  I heard a horrible screaming sound coming from behind my dads barn, but I knew we were all together so I thought it must be a child next door playing.  I scanned the yard and quickly realized that my little seven pound Shih Tzu was missing.  I took off running behind the barn because my brain had just finished processing the fact that my little dog was in distress. Naturally the kids were running right on my heels so I stopped everyone in order to hear where the sound was coming from.  There was silence.  I made the children stay and I kept running until I would not believe what my eyes were seeing.  I screamed in horror as I saw my little dog being carried away in a large coyotes mouth as he was trotting off into the woods.  At first thought I knew my little dogs life was over.  Then,  I am not sure if it was motherly instinct or sheer stupidity in me, but I took off charging the coyote.  I was screaming at him, clapping at him, and I am sure he was intimidated by my craziness, but it worked!  He let my little dog out of his mouth and ran off.  As you would imagine, Chipper was very injured.  I rushed him to a nearby vet hospital where they immediately tended to him and performed surgery on him.  Eleven hundred dollars and one day later we took Chipper home (to my parents house).  He had to be washed off with peroxide three times a day, four medications and constant TLC.

Animal control and the veterinarian said that it is VERY uncharacteristic of a coyote to drop his lunch like that.  It must have been my craziness that scared him, or at least freaked him out.  Just when I thought all was good in my life, I was caught completely off guard.  How many times over the past nine years has my little dog played in that area? Quite a bit.  We forget danger is lurking all around us.

Thank you God for keeping my children safe running around in that yard.  Thank you for alerting me that we need to always be careful in season and out of season.  When we do expect it and when we do not expect it, nothing ever catches you off guard.  Thank you for saving my soul and always protecting me when the dangerous preditors stalk me.  Help me to never be weak enough to be snatched from safety but keep me focused on You.  Even though Chipper is just a dog, thank you for saving his earthly life!  Amen.

I Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”