“I delight to do Your will, O my God”. (Psalm 40:8) AMP
Tanmarque’s Happy Princess fulfilled a youthful dream when my grandparents surprised me with this precious collie pup. Princess proved to be my Lassie for true and real. As an adolescent I marveled that she always desired to please me.
Princess memories flood my mind as I smile remembering them. Some of the most memorable include her uncanny ability to sniff out snakes and slay them by carefully stalking, then snatching them quickly and shaking the life from them. I attribute her determination to a bite she received on her nose as a pup. Her elongated nose grew to enormous proportion one summer day and the vet felt it was snake bite. This collie demonstrated her hatred for creepy crawlies by a definitive snake bark. Our family came to recognize this bark and to heed it appropriately. One dark August night she tended her ten pups in the back yard pen when we heard that specific bark. Sure enough, she found a huge rattler, which my daddy killed, probably saving her life after we rescued all the pups in our kitchen. Her protective instinct would not be deterred. We forced her inside also.
Let’s back up a bit to those ten pups. My mother (ninety-four) insists that I include this part of Princess history. After giving birth on our screened front porch on a hot summer day, Mother discovered Momma collie going back and forth into the living room from the front porch. She investigated and found that dear royal Princess felt that nothing was too good for her babies so she carried each one gently into the living room and tucked them in the corner of the couch. I happened to be working at the time, so didn’t get to witness this enthroning of the babies. Mother couldn’t decide whether to be upset or laugh. We never forgot it. Princess delighted to do for her family what she felt to be the very best. When said pups left the nest their momma, just like mine, knew just what to do. She instinctively separated the pup leaving and gave it her best wishes, nosing and licking it as if she knew.
While in high school, Princess trotted beside me as I walked to the bus stop two tenths of a mile down our dirt road each day. Her deepest desire was to be with me and to be obedient. She also knew instinctively when my bus returned and she joyfully greeted me when I arrived.
Princess, I’m sad to say, acquired a taste for the neighbor’s chickens which he finally despaired of enough to shoot her. She came home and died under her beloved dogwood tree outside the kitchen window. At the time I attended nurses training in Greenville and didn’t get to tell her goodbye. For years afterward, I dreamed I heard her barking; thankfully it wasn’t the snake bark. I don’t believe there are poisonous snakes where she resides.
Lessons learned from my precious Princess?
- Devotion unspeakable
- Love unbounded
- Faithfulness undeniable
- Joy unspeakable
- Confidentiality unequalled
- Patience unending
- Delightful obedience…
“I delight to do your will, O my God”
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