Logging Chains & Chicken Wire

A couple of very close friends told me “practice makes perfect”.  I know I will never be perfect on this side of eternity, but I do enjoy practicing the things I l♥ve and hope to be perfect at: cooking and writing.  Lately I’ve done more cooking than writing so this is an attempt to change that.  This is the “tales (some true and some not so true) and experiences from my existence” part.

We had recently terminated the last batch of chickens that we raised.  They stopped laying eggs back in January and we could not justify the expense of keeping them any longer as pets.  The feed was too expensive.  So we had this big fenced in area and a huge chicken coop (well, more a lean too than a chicken coop) but it was all empty space.  What better place for the dogs (the two meatheads in the photo at the bottom of this blog) to be able to be off the logging chains they lived on that hooked around an old Cedar tree?  They could get their exercise and play with each other without getting tangled up.

The first three or four days were great.  I would hook them up to their chains at night and let them free in the penned in area during the day.  I was judicious about checking on them to make sure they were not digging holes under or trying to jump over.  They were the perfect little deceitful angels.

Tuesday was a hot and humid afternoon here in South Carolina and I had recently given Charlie & Foxtrot fresh water and I got myself comfortable with a book on my couch in the luxury of air conditioning.  Well, I must have dozed off because the phone startled me when it rang.  It was my husband.  He was on his way home.  I had chores to do, supper to cook, dogs to check on.

When I went to look out on the dogs, they were gone.  Yup, gone!  I know it was Charlie's idea ... he is the instigator. He appears innocent, but he is not. I was frantic.  I ran to the edge of the road and looked up and down.  The highway is unforgiving and big trucks with chickens and pigs and other things go by here non-stop all day long.  I called for them and called for them and no sign of them anywhere.  A quick arrow prayer went up to God.  Then I called my husband and told him, “The dogs are gone”.  He said, “Excuse me?”  I repeated myself. 

Once he arrived, we took the leashes and walked the road up and down and all the places that we take our walks looking, calling, looking and calling.  No signs of them anywhere.  It was time to give up and call it a night.  I hated myself for not paying more attention.  I felt horrible.  I was concerned about deer hunters seeing these two dogs chasing deer (their instinct is to hunt) and shoot them.  That wouldn’t be the worst of it…it would be worse if they were only wounded and left to die an excruciating painful death in the woods.  I was sad to say the least.  Where could my two boys be?

I went to bed and my prayers to God were for His will ultimately to be done.  I don’t know what His plan is, but He has a plan for everything.  Maybe it was our time to let go of those two meatheads.  Maybe our season was over.  As I lay in bed listening to the whap-whap-whap of the overhead fan, the thoughts that went through my head were awful and comforting and uncertain.  (I begged God forgiveness for the uncertainty and for not taking better care of His creation).  When we are troubled is when we pray the most.  I fell asleep knowing that God’s will would be done and I hoped that the lesson I needed to learn would be clear to me in the morning.

The morning came sooner than we expected.  Our cat climbed on the headboard of the bed and stepped on the weather radio causing it to go off.  Both my husband and I sat right up in bed.  2:00 AM was a good time to pee and get a drink of water.  I got the flash light and scanned the back yard; the tree line where the woods meet the garden, the chicken coop, the dog’s area, the tree line again.  I was about to give up when suddenly I saw what I was looking for.  Four glowing green eyes!  “Yeah, the dogs are back!” I yelled and went running for the back door.  “Make sure it’s our dogs,” my husband called after me, but I was already out the door.

Both Charlie and Foxtrot knew they were bad but were happy to be home.  Foxtrot was soaking wet and smelled like fish.  I quickly got them back to the pen and hooked to their logging chains.  No supper that night, they would have to wait until morning.

As I climbed back into bed, smiling from cheek to cheek, I thanked God for answering my prayers.  This time He answered in a favorable manner.  His ways are not our ways and although my prayer turned out well this time, I know sometimes it may not always be that way.  God uses all things to teach us lessons; good and bad.  We have to be willing to see the lesson He is teaching.

Lessons learned: 1} chicken wire is not a secure barricade for dogs, 2} no matter how innocent and loyal they appear to be, a dog will follow his instincts — that is their nature, 3} Prayer works, God is good and always faithful.

Crackerberries © 2011