Week of Supreme Service

Hello to you all from Angouleme,

This week was a week of service and for me it was a supreme effort. If you didn't know before, I am not a pet lover, not because I don't like animals, but because they restrict your movement so much. I like to take off when ever the desire hits me and with a pet you are in need of someone to watch over the pet.

Well this last week was our turn to help a family that have a dog, fish, two cats, and a hamster. We thought we lost the hamster one night, but we found him burrowed into the very back of his little home filled with cotton batten. Panic struck with the thought of trying to find him. I don't do well crawling on all fours through the house any more. The dog was the only one who could not be left alone, so Joanne and I decided to keep Booba in our garage. We could feed the rest each night at the home of the family.

The first thing I had to do was build a confined area in a corner of the garage so that this fairly big dog couldn't run wild in the garage. She is a little over a year old and is a strong dog. The 9-year-old boy and 13-year-old, slightly built girl can easily be dragged when the dog is on a leash. This dog is strong enough to take a small child on a wild ride on skis on the packed snow.

Once the enclosure was made, we had the dog delivered on Friday. I spent the rest of the day building up the enclosure so she couldn't get over the barrier and filling in the holes in the walls where she could force her way through. Once that was done we knew we could sleep through the night.

The mornings were something else. Early to rise and out with the leash. With the dog out front and dragging me along, we head out down the street. She would pull me along and then stop all of a sudden to sniff and then off again. I do have admit that she walked and pulled fast enough to get my heart rate up to where I knew I had a good exercise. I am the only person I have seen in France that took some plastic bags to clean up after the dog. After a good brisk walk it was back in the yard. The whole yard is enclosed with a fir type bush that is about five feet high in the front and seven feet high on the sides and back. I have a tennis ball and she does chase after it but has no concept of bringing it back for another throw, so that game was short lived.

When we headed out the door, the dog went into the garage enclosure and, lucky for us, was able to stay put without any noise until we returned. It rained much of the week so she was reluctant to go out in the yard. Once the sun came out she would stay out, but when she got excited, which was often, she would start to dig in the grass. I tried to stop her from doing that but to no avail and in the enclosure she would go.

At the end of the week, she was better and on Saturday she even went into the enclosure without being told to do so. It freaked me out because I couldn't find her in the yard and I couldn't believe she could get out. All of those panic feelings went through my mind. I even thought that someone took her, but I soon got rid of that feeling because they would bring her back after 5 minutes since that is all the time it would take for her to take over their lives.

Today the service project was over and the dog went happily back with her owners without even saying a word of praise for our patience and concern for her. I guess that is true service when you do something without a reward.

Everything is fine here and the time is flying by. We had 27 people out to church today and the Elders were able to bring back a family that had been inactive for close to a year. After the meeting, they said they would be back next Sunday. It is good to see progress, even when it is just a little.

We love you and pray for your well being.
Elder Dad