In 2015, my family and I were blessed by God and finally to be able to move to the country. In 2016, we were able to get a little puppy, who we named Caspian. We were super excited to finally have a dog of our own!
About one year later, another dog started coming around our place and began to coax our dog away from our home almost on a nightly basis. This dog was living at the local quarry and was obviously a stray that someone had probably dropped off in our neighborhood. We tried for a long time to convince the dog we were trustworthy by giving it food now and then but this dog has serious trust issues. Any time we would get near it, it would either cower and run away or just run away. Because we didn’t know anything about this dog, we just called it the Stray Dog. It became obvious after a while that this dog was a female and after searching for quite a while no one could find her puppies anywhere.
For 18 months we tried to convince this dog that we were friendly, and we were not going to hurt her. Finally, one day my wife was able to actually get near enough to pet this dog for a very short time. She still ran off. Even though she now knew we weren’t going to hurt her, she still wasn’t sure.
Then, it happened. After all that time running away and us trying to convince her we were not going to hurt her, after a long time and much patience, she started not just trusting my wife but she also started trusting our daughters enough to not only pet her but to feed her on a daily basis. My wife named her Saidee because Stray Dog just wasn’t a very good name. It was really quite an incredible transformation to witness. Saidee not only would hang out with Caspian, but now she would allow my wife and daughters to pet her more and more. She was still very leery of men and especially of me. If I didn’t have anything in my hands I could get closer to her, but it was very obvious she had been beaten as a puppy. It was very sad to know this. When trying to approach her, I would try to talk very softly and not make quick actions and have nothing in my hands. Time and time again, I would only get so far before she couldn’t handle it anymore and she would just get up and start walking away from me.
It was very time consuming and I had to be very patient in trying to win her over. After a while, though, she actually let me approach her and even pet her for short spurts. A lot of times she just couldn’t handle it anymore and would walk away while I was petting her. Now, I can pet her for a very long time, and she trusts even me, though she still can get a bit skittish or cower if I approach her with something in my hands. The thing is though, she really is an amazing dog. She helps keep the rodent population down around our house, that is for certain. I can’t believe someone would basically just throw her away.
One thing I enjoy about this dog is that our relationship makes me think of how God never gives up on anyone. Having Saidee around has made me even more thankful for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I think about what He has done for each one of us and how He made the way back to the Father, even though we may not realize how wonderful the Father really is. Like Saidee with my family, if each one of us would just give in to our Heavenly Father’s plan for our lives it could be oh so good. No matter where you have been or what you have done, God wants to be with you. He wants to love you and give you good gifts. His plan is so much better than you can ever imagine. Turn to Him today.
For some encouragement, go read Hosea 14:1-9.
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