What I am Thankful For.....

Well I must start out by saying I am very very very thankful for these 2 members of our family.





Duke and Titan

Duke we have had for about 8 years. He is an Old English Bulldog, and he was a present for my husband. It was the breed of dog he just HAD TO HAVE. So I got him Duke for Christmas many moons ago. He is getting old, bulldog's don't have a long life. He has had problems with his eyes and subsequentaly he is about 75% blind in both eyes. We love him. He has his days when he can't see well and freaks out, and he is very very afraid of thunder. We have to lock him away when a storm comes of when fireworks are going off.

Then there is Titan. We got him shortly after moving into this house in Millville. He is an English Mastiff and we love him also. I will admit he is still in stupid puppy stage, but what a loveable puppy he is. He is now bigger than Duke and by 2 years old he will be pushing 200 pounds. He LOVES the kids especially Mason, you can see him eating Mason's apple in the pictures. Yes, he loves apples and bananas. I don't mind because vegetables and fruits are good for dogs also. Go figure.




So there is a reason why I am so thankful for our wonderful dogs and here is the story. Please don't judge me to harshly, most of us with more than 1 child has misplaced at least 1 of them before. I am just willing to share my blunder and that is because I am so thankful nothing happened to him.

Yesterday I was having an emotional day. I spent the afternoon with Uncle DeLoy. I love him so much and the time I spend with him is very special to me and I will never regret how much time I spend with him because we don't have him much longer. We cried together and we laughed together, and he said he would "try to find time to look in on me every once in a while" from heaven. I love him soooooo much. Anyway I was feeling emotionally drained and my Bishop called to ask if he could come visit. I said yeah whatever, not really thinking anything of it. So we started to pick up the house because isn't that what we all do when we get last minute visitors. I asked about 5 minutes into our cleaning "where's Mason" Now that is a common phrase in our house. He seems to escape from everywhere. I have never had a kid who likes to get out of things like he does, and in this instance it was our back yard. We have an 8 foot high vinyl fence surrounding our back yard. Now I considered our backyard safe and kind of Mason's "safe haven" where I couldnt' really worry about him. We check on him, but mainly he can play and not get into trouble. Well he managed to push open the bottom of our very very large gate and he slipped through and took the dogs with him. We found out he was missing after checking all the normal places, then we took the search out front. That scared me. We live right across from a manufacturing plant, Silicone Plastics, and even though it is closed this time at night, it still scares me. He crossed a busy road and went into a field. Now this is significant because there are 3 driveways directly across from us. 2 of them go to houses, 1 is a vacant field filled with nothing but 7-8 foot high Canadian Thistles. He chooses the vancant field. We are searching the business parking lot and other places while he is just merrily walking BARE FOOT through a field of thistles. I then see Titan, our mastiff puppy come out of this field. So I drive down an adjacent driveway and I think I spot a head. So I roll down my window and say "mason" and he says "hi mom" but I can't see him at all. So I go down the next driveway that leads to the field and i can only drive in about 15 feet before i bottom out my van and I am overtaken by the thistles. I am freaking out now. So i get out and I start walking in sandles through the thistles. I can't believe he walked through here. I start to hear him singing and I can follow his voice, then my second dog barks for me. I finally come upon him sitting NEXT TO A VERY FULL CANAL in a patch of thistles with Duke sitting right next to him. So Duke stayed with him while Titan came for help. I said "Mason what are you doing?" and he said "Mom, my feet hurt" So I scooped him up and got the dog and proceeded to walk back through the thistles to the van. By the time I made it home the Bishop was there. He was slightly confused as to what was going on, but he was a trooper and like most men he brushed it off because he had a purpose. He had a calling for me. Not any calling, A BIG calling. So much so I was in shock and I just said "yeah i'll do whatever" and he left. I went inside and then I broke down. I was already emotionally spent from DeLoy, then I lost Mason, and now this calling. I cried, and cried and cried. I talked to my mother who told me to pray and that it was okay if I thought I couldn't do it. My bishop doesn't know who I am, so he has NO idea what I am doing right now. Then Grandma also said I could turn it down and it would be okay. My husband says "go for it." So I am torn, I realize callings come to us for a reason, but then I remember the conference talk about being mindful when considering people for callings and know their circumstances and that stuff. So I am now wrestling with what I should do. I will tell you on Sunday what I decided and what calling it is.

So this is why I am thankful for my dogs. They knew there was something wrong. Duke stayed and comforted Mason, and stupid Titan came for help. I knew I should follow them, I didn't even hesitate. This isn't the first time I have trusted my animals, and it won't be the last time.

Now I am crying again, one of these days I will run out of tears, probably after DeLoy leaves us.