Did you remember a crush you had on somebody when you read the title?
If so, I hope it brought a smile to your face, but that is not the kind of puppy love I am referring to. Actually, I was thinking of something much better: real puppies.
There’s just something about a sweet baby animal. As a kid on a farm, I was around baby cows (heifers) and chicks.
Also, my Mamaw Jo always had cats, so there were the occasional kitten liters from time to time.
Then one Easter Papaw bought me some colored baby ducks. They were purple, pink and blue.
I was so excited until their color wore off. At that point, I didn’t want them anymore.
But I was only around puppies when somebody else’s dog had them. Daddy had a male German Shepard named King, so no puppies there.
Years later we took in a female dog from somebody we knew. Sheba was an Alaskan Malamute. When we got her, she was already carrying puppies. Let me tell you, I was so excited.
I couldn’t wait to see the puppies and smell their ears. You read that right, I loved the smell of puppy dog ears. Go figure.
Anyway, Sheba had eight of them. It was drawing close to wintertime and they needed an airtight place to stay warm. One of our friends who was a contractor built her a big nice doghouse out of scrap wood he had.
We even hung a blanket over the door to keep the cold air out. Then we had it moved to sit outside of mom’s bedroom window. That way we could keep an eye out for Sheba and her puppies. It was a good thing we did.
One night we were woken up to a puppy crying and howling. When we looked, we saw that one of Sheba’s puppies had fallen out of the doghouse. It was way too small to climb back in by itself.
My mom said, “Bless it’s little heart.” She put on her housecoat and slippers and went outside to the rescue.
From her bedroom window, I watched as mom walked up to the little puppy. It stopped crying and wagged its tail. She gently lifted it up and placed it back into the doghouse with its momma and the other puppies.
“I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour.” Isaiah 43:11 (KJV)
That sweet little puppy couldn’t get back into the doghouse and to its momma by itself.
If you think about it, we are like that little puppy in that no matter how hard we try, we cannot save ourselves. Salvation only comes from the Lord. Do you have it?
Actually, there were a few nights my mom had to go outside more than once to put the puppies back inside the doghouse. I volunteered to help, but she said she wanted me to stay inside since it was so cold. Looking back, I wonder if she thought I would stay outside so that I could sniff their ears.
The picture with the article is of my daughter Sara and hew new puppy at the time: Little John Deere. This was taken when she was 12 years old.
Brooke Cox is an author, speaker, and storyteller. She was a 2016 Selah Awards Finalist for Debut Novel. Her children’s book: “Dinosaur Eggs,” is now available. It is based on Ephesians 6: The Armor of God. Her novel “Until the Moon Rises: A Conniving Cousin Mystery” is also available. Also, she has two books out in her storytelling series “Saucy Southern Stories.” The Amazon links for her books may be found on her website: brookecoxstories.com. Please feel free to contact her. She would love to hear from you.