Feelings of Christmas

It's beginning to feel more like Christmas... This year my Christmas spirit feels more like it used to when my kids were home anticipating Santa Claus. First, I celebrated Christmas with my kids and grandkids on December 17. Needless to say, I had to have all my shopping done by then, which gave me an extaordinary feeling of accomplishment and a very satisfying feeling of calmness well in advance of Christmas day. There would be no panic-stricken, last minute shopping for me. YEAH!!!

I got up Christmas morning at 5:00 and left for Whitehouse hoping to arrive at Windy's house in time to see the boys run down the hall toward the living room and the Christmas tree. I arrived at Windy's house at 7:10. Blake and Carter were already in the living room, but Windy had delayed the opening of the presents because Dawson had not yet paddled down the hall. (He had been up all night throwing up). Soon all 3 boys were around the tree opening up presents and screaming with delight at their new toys from Santa.

I left Windy's house around 9:30 and made my way to Deadwood. I enjoyed visiting with MawMaw and Papa and everyone else who came in during the day. When it approached 5:00pm, I knew it was time for me to think about heading home. I did not want to be on the road too long after dark. A few minutes after 5:00 I was on the road for home.
When I got to the intersection of 2517 and 699, I decided not to turn right on 699 which is my typical route, but instead went straight. When I got to Carthage, I turned onto the loop and headed for the 149 exit. I went a short distance and saw 2 German Shepherd dogs in the middle of the highway; neither of which made any attempt to move out of the road. I slowed down and stopped to watch them and realized that one of them must have been hit by a car. The other one was just sitting there with the hurt one and would not leave its side. I was only 3-4 miles from Aunt Renee's house so I thought I would get the hurt dog into my car and take it to her house and figure out what to do from there.

So I walked cautiously out into the middle of the road and quickly assessed the injuries. It seemed like the hurt dog was not hurt very badly, but one of her back legs had a couple of bad gashes that went to the bone. She also had blood in her mouth and my thoughts at the time were, "at least the blood is not gushing from her mouth". I thought that was a good sign. It only took a split second for me to realize that she was unable to move herself from the middle of the road, so I picked her up the best that I could and made it to the back of my car with her. She made no whimpering sounds or yelps of pain, which made me think even more that she must not be hurt very badly. The other dog followed and waited as I got the injured dog up and into the back of my car. The other dog immediately jumped in as well, which is what I wanted him to do.

I very quickly started trying to call Aunt Renee. She had left Deadwood about 30-45 minutes ahead of me, so it did not occur to me that she would not be home. She answered her phone, but she and Rowland had stopped by Larry and Jeri's house and they were still visiting with them. I decided to go to Tobi's house to see if he was home and thankfully he and Tasha were both there. This all happened within a span of 5-6 minutes. I left my car running and hurried toTobi's door and hollered that I needed help. Tasha got me a towel and we went out to my car. I noticed that the hurt dog's breathing was very shallow and I suddenly had the feeling that the dog was not going to make it.
We took her collar and tags from around her neck and ran back inside where Tobi started trying to call the number that was provided on the tags. I went back outside to check on the dog again. I opened the door to find that she had died. I ran back to tell Tobi not to worry about trying to reach a veterinarian.

Tobi took care of the dog that had died and my only option at this point was to take the other dog home with me for the night. So I headed home with the dog in the back of my car. When I got him home I realized that he was wearing a collar, but there were no tags. He was a very nice dog and adjusted to my house and this new environment very well. After a couple of hours, he decided to eat. We both made it through the night without much excitement. This afternoon Rowland called to see if I still had the dog because the owners of the dogs had just called him inquiring about them. I wondered how in the world they would know to call Rowland.

Well, remember that Aunt Renee and Uncle Rowland were at Larry and Jeri's while all of this was going on. I had talked to Aunt Renee a couple of times on the phone back and forth while we tried to figure out how to help the dogs. Earlier today, Jeri and her daughter had gone to town to shop and they saw a sign on the road saying someone was offering a reward for some lost dogs. Jeri put 2 and 2 together and thought it might be the same dogs, so she went back and got the phone number. Sure enough, they were. The owners of the dogs came to pick up their dog from my house just a little while ago. I was so excited to see them together. It was a tearful event.... I was so glad that I decided to go a different way home last night. You never know what kind of miracle is waiting to happen.

As I begin to pack up my Christmas decorations to store them away for next year, I have a happy heart and I know again what the Christmas spirit feels like!!!


This is one of my new German Shepherd puppies, Hummer. He has been with me for about 5 weeks. He and I have been PATIENTLY waiting for his new friend, Hemi, to arrive from Colorado. Hemi was supposed to be here 2 weeks ago, but the weather in Colorado prevented him from making the trip. Hemi will be here on December 27. We can't wait.