The Dog Days of Summer

Recently, my sweet, now old, dog has moved back into the house.  In the past year her health has declined rapidly.  Her arthritis is terrible, her eyes have begun to get cloudy and at one point she had stopped eating.  Anyone that has met Ella knows that she is a one of a kind, awesome little dog.  She and I did almost everything together in my single days.  She's beat out purebred /obedience club dogs in a contest, winning me a nice prize.  A dear friend's daughter's first word was "Ella".  She's protected me from creepers at my door, run stray cats out of the yard, killed snakes, helped me raise a few litters of kittens, alerted me to a robbery in progress and protected me from the perpetrator!  She's just wonderful.

Ella enjoyed her carefree life on the farm, but I know she really missed being in the house everyday.  Once we brought the girls home, I thought they'd never see the inside of the house again, as C's fear of dogs (animals in general) was/is so great.  C is a brave little girl, but dogs are something that I was beginning to think she'd never grow to tolerate, much less enjoy.  As much as I love animals, it broke my heart.  

Well, once I saw my dear, sweet dog suffering and I realized my time with her might be very limited, I bit the bullet, bathed her (with my animal loving FL's help) and moved her in.  I won't go into all of the details of C's reaction, but it was disheartening, as Ella is such a good and gentle dog.

I am so happy to say that a big change has come about in their relationship.   A BIG change in only a week and a half.

She started with just talking to Ella and showing her things from afar.

She wanted to be like FL, who has no respect for Ella's personal space no matter how many times I correct, demonstrate proper behavior and remind her.  FL just sticks her sweet face right in Ella's.  Ugh.  But Ella has always been this sweet.

The other day, the girls wanted to read/show books to me while I was preparing an activity that had to be done that day.  In desperation, I told them to pull up a cushion and read and show Ella.

This happened:

And later, this:

Yep, that's C's left hand working hard to pet Ella.  And, um, C petting Ella.  Voluntarily.

C wants to brush her, bring her everywhere with us, make sure she gets her medicine and pick out a different bandana for her to wear on her neck everyday.

It's given C some confidence.  And C is seeing the ways that Ella looks out for her and for our family.  And that Ella is good.

C has been really struggling with her story and all the hurt that surrounds it.  Experts suggested we stop telling her story when she asks and ask her to tell us.  She and I would do this often, and she would always stop at one point.  The point that she became a part of our family.  She couldn't talk about it or go any further.  She would just say, "I can't."   And I believe she is sincere.

I made her a special photo book that I thought would help her tell the story.  C was very excited and I made an exception, and told her the story using the pictures a few times.  She still couldn't tell me the story past the hard part.

And while she still hasn't gotten through the whole thing, she asked to tell the most understanding, nonjudgmental being I know:

And got a little further than she ever had before.

And with God bringing all our little lives together on this blessed farm both human and animal, I think I can finally see a purpose in all of it.

Thank you, God, for your creation, for your Ella.  You are the God that really sees.  And you see all of our hurts and you are slowly growing and healing us all and turning some of our greatest fears into our biggest blessings.

Praise God.