Monday, February 22, 2010

Why my dog gives me hope for the future...

I had good intentions when I got my dog. I wanted a big dog who would lay at my feet and be calm. I wanted a dog I could walk. I wanted a good dog. I wanted Lassie.

What I got was an out of control, jumping maniac. He bit a neighbor last year when I did try to take him out to the park. He practically ruined my back door. He ruined new pool covers 3 years in a row. Remember this post? When I threatened to kill him?

I gave up on this dog. He was on the waiting list for the no-kill shelter. He was nearly hauled out to the middle of no where and left for dead multiple times. I'm being brutally honest. This dog was killing me... slowly.

But I wasn't willing to give up. When it came down to it, I just couldn't give up on him.

Someone told me a few weeks ago that I need to lower my expectations as to how everything was supposed to fit together for us. I was supposed to settle for something less than what I wanted.

I have always had high expectations... for myself and others. And this can lead to huge frustrations on my part.

But am I willing to give it up? No.

I have hope that we can accomplish anything we want as a family.

Because my dog is laying in my bed with his arms around me, sleeping and hugging me.




And while I realize dogs and kids/life/family/dreams are NOT the same thing... it's the situation I'm talking about. A situation I thought was unfixable. A situation I thought would never change. A situation I thought would never be the way I had imagined it to be. A situation I felt I had no control over.

But I gave it another shot with my dog. I was unwilling to change my expectations, and I put in a lot of time and effort which makes unfixable situations somehow more fixable. And now my dog is better than Lassie. So there.

And this gives me hope.
And this...


Photobucket

3 comments:

Shonya said...

I get it. We don't have to lower our expectations, we just invest ourselves and our time and our effort. God is faithful. Praying blessings over you and yours.

nunya said...

What a sweet story. :) I'm so glad you got through this.

Mama Melissa said...

awwww, i'm so glad it's working out! what did you do to work on it? training?

melissa