Thursday, September 26

Lesson from Lance: Grace

Today I learned a lot...from Lance...about God, grace, and forgetting what you need to forget...

You ever have one of those days, that while it was slightly scary, it made you thankful for a few not-so-great things that happened earlier that month? Not to mention, make you realize just how God really does work in mysterious ways and work everything together for good?

Back story: earlier this month Lance was stung by a bee (or so we think) and the resulting little welt was starting to heal when he got to playing rough with Caito and tore it wide open about a week later. So to start this month off I had a vet bill, salve to put on Lance's open sore, and antibiotics he had to take every day. Oh, and we were recommended that Lance wear a T-shirt to keep his wound clean/covered/protected (FYI, for now, he wears the same size I do, apparently).

So today I took Lance for his almost-daily walk, and at the last minute I forgot to take Lance's T-shirt off before we left (his wound is healing fine so he probably doesn't need the T-shirt anymore). It turns out it was for the best that I forgot, despite the fact it had a couple little holes in it and didn't look all that great. It was a pleasant enough walk and we got to meet a very nice older couple during it. And then as we were coming around the last corner and headed home, one of the neighborhoods' pitbulls broke free from it's line and came right at us. Right at Lance...

Did I mention it was a scary day?

Immediately a few friendly neighbors went into action and as Lance sought refuge on another neighbor's porch, someone rounded up the pitbull and led it home, and another brought Lance back down the steps to me.

The good news is that in only a couple minutes Lance was back to his slobbering-greeting self and saying 'hi' (albeit a little more subdued then I know he can be) to everyone involved and aside from keeping his tail between his legs a few more minutes, he seemed fine. Even acting his normal self as we made our way home, waiting patiently by the door until I unlocked it so we could both go in (I was shaking more then him, apparently)!

The good thing about a Newfie is that they are called "goofy newfies" and the warning/caution signs you can get for them all say something like "Caution: Newfoundland may slobber you to death". As in, while Lance may have an incredible memory (a blessing and a downside; I have to make sure he never sees where I hide treats because he'll never forget to check there later) he has no concept of evil. If he had been a person and the pitbull had turned to apologize on it's way home, Lance would have probably given it a huge hug (albeit, hesitantly?), probably exchanged names, and maybe even made a new best friend, I'm sure.

*shakes head*
That's just who he is. There's no evil in anyone/anything, in his opinion.

Did I mention that the wound from earlier this month was a blessing too? Because one of the neighbors who helped us out today couldn't stop raving about how it was such a good thing Lance was wearing a T-shirt. It kept the pitbull from getting a good bite on Lance as it just got a mouthful of T-shirt instead. Not to mention, it allowed Lance to escape the pitbull and no blood (or fur) was spilled over the incident before everyone could intervene.

So yeah, Lance may never be very protective of me (Service Dogs aren't allowed to be), but as another blessing he might not have some of those other issues that SD's (or leashed dogs) do after they have been attacked by other (loose) dogs. He may never need all that therapy and such to recover. All he needs is a few minutes of extra petting from random people he just met, (a few treats from me?), maybe a little bit of licking/love from Caito, and all is as it was...

"There's evil in the world? Since when?"

(Perhaps if we summarized all harm/evil with a Newfie's mindset it would read like: if evil presents itself, there's grace/forgiveness for it. And how can it survive after that? It dies, of course. Much faster then the second it presented...)