Anyone up for a true uplifting tale?

[Don Corleone]

Hello all,
I want to begin by saying I am not attempting to convert or prostelyze anyone. I am simply offering my account of the extremes my life has taken over the past two weeks as one more story to tuck away for your own personal rainy day. However, if religious references offend you, stop reading now, because I cannot tell this story without making frequent references to the Almighty.

Okay, there's very little in my life that I truly, deeply care about. I'm not big on style (witness my wardrobe), I like to travel but it wouldn't kill me if I never could again. I have a nice house, but if something happened and it was taken away from me, I could cope. Pretty much my family, especially my wife and my dogs are the only things I really could not do without.

Two weeks ago this coming Sunday, I was getting ready to go on an emergency business trip to Ottawa (read running around like a chicken with my head cut off). I had a task list a page long to get done before I was due to leave (and my flight required that I wake up at 4:30 Monday morning). In my haste, I did not latch the gate on my fence when I went into my backyard to fill the birdfeeders. I then returned to the house and knowing there was a nasty sleet storm coming, I let my dogs out into the backyard. 10 minutes later, I went out to put my suitcase in my jeep, and saw the gate swinging open. My blood ran cold, as my dogs like to wander, given the chance. After a brief hunt, I found 2 of the 3 not too far from home. A neighbor said the 3rd had split off and kept going when the other two started heading home.

Well, I searched everywhere, long after it started sleeting. I was up till 1, my wife and I looked everywhere. Finally, I had to call it a night. I went to bed sick to my stomach, barely able to look at myself in the mirror. My dog was out in the woods, beyond my neighborhood, trying to survive a sleet storm because I was careless and irresponsible. What's more, I was leaving for 3 days and wouldn't be around to look for her.

Well, as you might expect, I started praying. I went to Ottawa, my wife kept looking, nothing. While I was gone, my wife printed fliers we flew everywhere (except for f$^@ing Blockbuster) in our neighborhood and started going to our local pound every day. Nothing.

I came home from Ottawa, took my other dog on a long, long walk through the woods to get his scent out there for her to help guide her home. Nothing. Every day, the pound, walked the circuit around our neighborhood, and checked behind local restaurants. Lots of strays, but no Lucy.
Beginning on last Saturday, I upped my prayer ante and started several novenas. I started praying rosaries as though my knees could take kneeling all day. Still nothing, just loss, grief and guilt.

Well, we kept praying, kept hoping, kept checking the animal shelters and.... nothing.

Finally, last night, 11 days, two snowstorms and a sleet storm later, my wife and I went to our league bowling. Didn't want to go, but the engineer in me had already put together that the longest Lucy could have survived on her own was at 5 days, 7 tops and I had to start coming to grips with the inevitable. Either somebody had kidnapped her (for a pet for as bait at a dogfight) or she was dead and wasn't in a place we would find her. I thought we needed to start trying to get ready for the final acceptance, then try to get back to normal. Wasn't going to give up on the prayers, but I had already started shifting them towards "or help me deal with what I know is coming". Well, 3 frames away from the end of our last game, the phone rings. Lucy has been found!!! Amazing, yes, but not quite miraculous. Yet.

The woman who called our house actually spoke to my sister-in-law (lives with us while she's going to college). She describes my dog, right down to the blue bone nametag she has. My sister-in-law is beside herself with joy and the lady says "yes, she looked just like the man who came by last Thursday to ask about her said she would". My sister in law described me to her and the lady said "that's the man, yes". So my sister in law said "So i guess you saw the flier". And she said "what flier?"

Well, my sister in law goes and gets Lucy, brings her home, we meet at the house. All is great. But:


-The woman said specifically she always gets strays in her neighborhood and never pays any attention to them. It was the man telling her to look for them that had her stop and grab my dog and bring her into her house.

-My dog lost 25% of her body weight and could probably have kept moving around for 1 more day, tops. If that woman hadn't found her last night, there's an exteremely good chance she had less than 12 hours to live. (As it's still winter, there's no bugs, no frogs, nothing out in the woods for my dog to live on).

-I never set foot in the woman's yard. I never even went within 5 miles of her neighborhood.

-Everyone, and I mean everyone, I spoke to in the 11 days Lucy was gone... I gave a flier to. I am certain, I never spoke to this woman.

So, call it superstition, the ramblings of a deranged mind, or, maybe, just maybe, I'm right, and I witnessed a true, honest to God "according to Hoyle" miracle. There's no way my dog should be alive right now. None. So to all of those who believe, and it doesn't matter what your name for God is, I say I never truly understood how powerful the phrase "with God, all things are possible" until I held my dog in my arms last night. And to you who don't, go ahead and laugh, I know all of this sounds silly and you won't hurt my feelings. I'll pray for you too. Like Tom Bodeen in those Motel 6 commercials, we'll leave the light on for ya.

By the way, Catholic or not, anyone who feels like their cause is absolutely hopeless and just doesn't know where to turn, I strongly suggest St. Jude's novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I've only said it twice in my life, and both times, the impossible literally happened right before my very eyes.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

It doesn't sound silly. Very uplifting.

We had a dog that died when I was 4. I must have been pretty upset because I can't remember a thing about him, even though I have some pretty vivid memories from that age.

[Goofball]

The woman who called our house actually spoke to my sister-in-law (lives with us while she's going to college).

Cool! Is she hot?



Just kidding, Don.

Good story; glad to hear your pooch is safe and sound, if a little worse for wear.

[Beirut]

You have but to read my signature to know the truth of my mind and of your story.

[Togakure]

Thanks for the story, and glad to read that you recovered your dog. Nice to read something substantial here for a change.

What is "St. Jude's novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus?"

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I lost a dog and 2 cats. 1 of the cats died after being hit by a car, the other ran away because I was in the Maritimes in the summer and ,being suspicious of strangers, my cat ran away from the person that was taking care of him then. He was a good hunted, and is probably still alive. The dog ran away from the back yard, probably in pursuit of something. Currently I have another cat(2 years old) and a Beta fish, also called a Siamese/Chinese fighting fish.

[Don Corleone]

Well, if you weren't raised Catholic, you probably don't know what novenas are, so let me start there. Catholics believe that while God is the one who does everything, you can ask saints to pray for you, much the same way you could ask a friend or a family member. Most saints have some special 'sphere of influence', due to their life here on earth. St. Francis of Asisi, among a bunch of other things he did, loved animals and thought that pets were sent from God to show teach us how to love, hence he's the guy you ask to pray for you when you're pet's sick or missing. Novenas (latin for nines) are special prayers asking a saint to intercede on your behalf. You say the prayer 9 times a day for 9 days. Sometimes, there's an additional requirement, like promising publication, or to chose one sin and work really extra hard to abstain from it. There's all sorts of novenas for all sorts of causes. St. Jude, one of the apostles, is the patron saint of hopeless causes.

If you'd like to learn more about St. Jude, the novena itself or see some of the things people pray for, there's a website here:

http://www.stjudenovena.org/

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Nice story Don, great that your dog's Ok.

I sympathise because I had a similar animal disappearance happen on me a few months ago. My cat got hit by a car and bolted. There was a little trail of blood, but that petered out, so we searched the neighbourhood, but we couldn't find head nor tail of her. It was five hours later, when I was just about going to go to bed, that she strolled in as if nothing had happened, despite that fact her tail had been crushed and one of her back legs had numerous severe abrasions. I'd really like to know what she did during those hours. She must have been a couple of blocks away, because there was no way she was anywhere very near to my house.

As an aside, the tail and leg seemed ok after she was patched up, but a couple of weeks ago the last two inches of her tail just fell off. Pretty strange. I'm thinking of making it into a talisman, sort of like a lucky rabbit's foot.