Lessons from the leash
It was summertime in the south. It was hot! It was also the beginning of football season in Woodruff. Dennis prepared to go with the team to football camp in North Carolina. On Saturday we rode to Pickens to a kennel to pick out a collie pup for me and our two young sons.
Instead of a puppy, we came home with a two year old female collie named Cher. She was with pup and we couldn’t have been more pleased with the prospects of raising collie puppies.
On Sunday after church, we connected Cher’s collar to a rope and attached her to the clothes line to give her some running room until we could prepare a bigger space for her outside. We had no idea how she would adjust to her new surroundings so far away from her kennel so some precautions seemed appropriate.
Two little boys and a husband about to leave town for a week kept us busy, so we didn’t check on Cher for a while. When I glanced out of the high kitchen window in our farmhouse kitchen, I noticed she was at the near end of the clothesline close to a bush. Something didn’t look right. I looked again to pay closer attention. Cher, wrapped around the bush, pulled at her leash. I ran out the door and down the steps while calling Dennis’ attention to the problem.
She had bound herself so tightly around the bush, her collar was choking her. Her breath, nearly gone, she fought us as we did our best to loosen the noose around her neck. Panicked, we both pushed and pulled as she slowly choked to death right in front of us. In the hot August afternoon, the sweat and tears flowed freely as we realized we’d lost our brand new expectant dog.
The misery of that steamy August Sunday continued as I dealt with the inevitable fact that Dennis had to leave for football camp that same afternoon. I remember listening to his green Volkswagen crunching out the gravel drive way leaving me alone with my grief and two little boys. The vision of that beautiful collie struggling to loosen herself from the ties that bound her never left me. What killed her left a deep impression on both Dennis and me. We are careful about dog collars and where and how we confine our canines. But there are other lessons to be learned from Cher.
- Best laid plans of …men and families often run awry (Steinbeck paraphrased)
- Pulling at restraints can choke
- If you get caught in a thorny bush …stand still until help comes
- Don’t fight the hands that seek to free you from your plight
- Facing grief alone sends you to The Burning Bush that is not consumed…where God speaks.
- Looking back at unpleasant experiences may lead to holy ground; slip off your shoes.
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