Monday 14 May 2012

Dog Meets Porcupine


Sunday morning, the house was quiet (late night for the kids) and I was having my coffee with Darcy over the phone.  After our morning chat I strapped on my shoes, grabbed the leash and headed out to get the dog for a walk.  What I wasn’t expecting was for her to meet me with a nose and mouth full of quills.  We have a litter of kittens, 9 to be exact, who were born in her house.  She has been very protective of them and won’t let unwelcome guests near; I guess that included the porcupine.

 It so happened that Sunday was a big day for us, as three members in our family were getting baptized.  The last place I had planned to be was sitting on the veterinarian clinics floor with our dog, waiting for her to wake up.   I couldn’t help but feel disappointed at missing the morning, however, I also realized that sometimes we are needed in other places, whether it be away from home working, with loved ones who are sick or sitting with a dopey dog wondering how am I going to lift her in the vehicle?  Life has a way of throwing monkey wrenches in to best made plans and intentions.

Our life is kind of a fly by the seat of your pants one. A phone call can come any day and any time, and off to work Darc heads.   In our family we are quite familiar with members being in different parts of the province at any given time. It sucks, but it is sometimes necessary, as the bills won’t pay themselves.  I am very grateful to Darcy for doing what he does, as I know it’s not easy for him to leave his family and home and is difficult to get in the training he wants with the schedule he has.   I honestly don’t think I could do it.  I think what we continue to learn in our family, is how important it is to take advantage of the time that we are together.  This can be hard sometimes because there is always that LIST of things that need to be done.  I think we are slowly learning that sometimes projects can wait another day.  Let’s go for a bike ride instead, or let’s pretend we didn’t look at the clock and see it was pass bedtime and go toss a baseball around instead.

We might not always be exactly where we want, but there are times when there isn’t a lot of choice.  The best we can do is be grateful for what we have and enjoy the times we are given.



Alana Regier