Floyd

On Thursday, the most beautiful day of last week, my friend, PM and I went for a drive, and we were going to also go for a hike, but the snow levels were lower than normal, so our hike was postponed.
Before we came to the lookout point where we ate our lunch, we drove through a darling town that I am definately going to revisit soon. It was healing being among the big trees, similar to the elevation I grew up in. We continued along our drive, enjoying the snow on the rocks in the river and the manmade waterfall.
Soon, we arrived at our lunch spot with a spectacular view of an amazing mountain I have never ever seen in my life: I could hardly believe it was so beautiful!!! We were just getting ready to eat our lunch when a lady pulled up to photograph the beautiful snow covered mountain.
I felt drawn to talk to her; and then I realized that she had a dog with her. Will you believe it?!! Another Pit, though this one was half Gordon Setter as well, with the name of Floyd. Who names a dog Floyd?, I wondered, but did not have to wait long to find out, as if his owner heard my unspoken question. She likes the band Pink Floyd, and since her dog has pinkish brown freckles on his ears, she named him Floyd.
She adopted him at an animal shelter as a baby: that was six years ago. Since that time, she has been through a lot. The hardest thing being the sudden death of her husband due to unexplained health problems two years ago. Speaking of Floyd, she said that "he has really stepped up to the plate and that he has been there every step of the way." I really admired this woman who was not originally from the area we were visiting but bought a "fixer upper" in the area with her husband before he passed away with the intent that they would live out their retired lives in relative peace, far away from the busy city. So now she lives with her dog, (as her two grown daughters continue to live in the city), driving around in search of fall foliage and beautiful scenery. How I desired to offer her the gospel in all of its fullness, yet hoped that the brief conversation we had would somehow plant a seed.
I came to admire the lady we met as we talked about her life and her dog, who reminded me so much of my Malden who passed away two and a half years ago. Also a silly mix with his very own pesonality, and wise beyond my comprehension, he would look at me and listen to conversations with the same intensity as Floyd did with our new friend.
Also on this trip, I came to realize how much my friend PM and I have in common: loving to visit new places, hike, be in nature (rivers and lakes, big trees) and how we don't have to wait for anyone: we can just go. Just like our new friend and Floyd.

May you all be blessed this week with joy, clarity and truth. Meet a new dog this week!

With sincere gratitude for the dogs that touch our lives,
Katie
 

Jewel, the nice pit bull

Hello fellow dog lovers,
Well, I never thought I would say that I had met a nice pit bull: sorry to those of you who LOVE them! But this summer I did indeed meet a pit at the river who I really liked. She was nice to her "sisters"...three Jack Russells, nice to her Mom...a lady who obviously loved dogs, and she was nice to my family. Her name is Jewel, a blue nosed pit. And boy did she run the show: she loved to be splashed, loved to have sticks thrown in the water and loved to be loved!! Her sisters were hilarious: two of them pretty much steered clear of the water until their Mom washed them off before leaving, but the one loved the water and kept up just fine with the big dogs. Jewel made people laugh, she made friends, and she definately changed my belief system, which was that all pits are nasty. Definately a life lesson!
When I signed in this evening, I thought about how much I have been writing about dogs just to get myself to write again and realized that I have not been doing much of testifying of Jesus Christ and family. I want to say how precious my family is to me: they are truly my very best friends. I am always wanting to find my passion: something that I am really good at and something I can bless others with in a special way. Recently I felt very distinctly, "Make your family your passion!" So every event we do together: Pumpkin Farm, Apple orchards (kind of), Sunday church, dinner every night together, Birthday celebrations, learning new things, driving in the car, talking on the phone while Don is at work, I try to make every moment memorable to me: remembering every funny joke, every laugh, every new discovery, every plan for the future and taking lots of photos (Mom).  EVERYDAY IS TRULY A MIRACLE!!!

   Lame...my favorite word. I have not written for almost a year: Tuesdays or Sundays will probably be my "new" days to write, for good reasons, also good reason why I have not written in SOOO long...E!!!!!!
     So the other day as I was listening to KLOVE, I was so excited to hear that one of the DJs had posted EIGHT WAYS DOGS IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH. So here they are: 1. Lessen the side effects of chemotherapy (PROFOUND)    2. Help veterans with PTSD (and I would add, anyone with depression or related issues)     3. Strengthen babies' immune systems (now I have a really great excuse for always living with a dog!)     4. Relieve student stress (listen to this: "Harvard Medical School and Yale Law School even allow students to 'check out' resident 'therapy dogs' from libraries.")     5. Get people exercising (YEA!!!)     6. Help autistic kids     7. HEAL THE HEART (both the physical actual heart and our "inside" hearts)     8. Sniff out cancer (also profound)
     So I found that report to be s reminder for me to re re begin my blog: DOG BLOG. I had received a couple of reminders over the summer: the Pit and Jack Russell River Dogs, the recent funny dogs at one of my favorite places on earth and my relatively recent dog loss. Mostly, my very first WATER LOVING DOG!!!