We
live in a world full of people who try to
spring up under every disadvantage; working
their solitary but irresistible way through a
thousand obstacles. They need someone to
understand them. Everyone
has beauty and talent but not everybody sees it.
In stead, most of us
just ignore them. Some of us superficially show
sympathy because we feel important; we feel
superior. Even worse, we brag about our possessions,
our job, the school we went, our children
etc. ...and we give unsolicited advice.....
We
say that we do things for the Lord but actually
we do them for ourselves. These gestures are clearly signs of
inferiority and weakness. Many of us look at the outward appearance of a person
or where he/she comes from and judge him/her
unfairly. God looks within us. In His eyes,
we are all equal; we are all beautiful.
We can make others happy by giving
genuine compassion
and believe me, we will be happy too. Let's
learn from the following story written by Roger Dean Kiser, an award-winning author of
several books filled with stories of love, hope
and courage.
It
had been a very long night. Our black cocker
spaniel 'Precious' was having a difficult
delivery. I lay on the floor beside her large
four-foot square cage, watching her every
movement. Watching and waiting, just in case I
had to rush her to the veterinarian.
After six hours the puppies started to appear.
The first-born was black and white. The second
and third puppies were tan and brown in color.
The fourth and fifth were also spotted black and
white. "One, two, three, four, five,"
I counted to myself as I walked down the hallway
to wake my wife, Judy, and tell her that
everything was fine.
As we walked back down the hallway and into the
spare bedroom, I noticed a sixth puppy had been
born and was now laying all by itself over to
the side of the cage. I picked up the small
puppy and laid it on top of the large pile of
puppies, who were whining and trying to nurse on
the mother. Precious immediately pushed the
small puppy away from rest of the group. She
refused to recognize it as a member of her
family.
"Something's wrong," said Judy.
I reached over and picked up the puppy. My heart
sank inside my chest when I saw the little puppy
had a cleft lip and palate and could not close
its little mouth. I decided right there and then
that if there was any way to save this animal I
was going to give it my best shot.
I took the puppy to the vet and was told nothing
could be done unless we were willing to spend
about a thousand dollars to try and correct the
defect. He told us that the puppy would die
mainly because it could not suckle. After
returning home, Judy and I decided that we could
not afford to spend that kind of money without
getting some type of assurance from the vet that
the puppy had a chance to live.
However, that
did not stop me from purchasing a syringe and
feeding the puppy by hand. Which I did every day
and night, every two hours, for more than ten
days. The little puppy survived and learned to
eat on his own as long as it was soft canned
food.
The
fifth week I placed an ad in the newspaper, and
within a week we had people interested in all of
the pups, except the one with the deformity.
Late one afternoon I went to the store to pick
up a few groceries.
Upon returning I happened to
see the old retired schoolteacher who lived
across the street from us waving at me. She had
read in the paper that we had puppies and was
wondering if she might get one from us for her
grandson and his family. I told her all the
puppies had found homes but I would keep my
eyes open for anyone else who might have an
available cocker spaniel. I also mentioned that
if someone should change his/her mind, I would
let her know. Within days, all
but one of the puppies had been picked up
by their new families. This left me with one
brown and tan cocker as well as the smaller
puppy with the cleft lip and palate.
Two days passed without me hearing anything from
the gentleman who had been promised the tan and
brown pup. I telephoned the schoolteacher and
told her I had one puppy left and that she was
welcome to come and look at it. She advised me
that she was going to pick up her grandson and
would come over at about eight o'clock that
evening.
That night at around seven-thirty, Judy and I
were eating supper when we heard a knock on the
front door. When I opened the door, the man who
had wanted the tan and brown pup was standing
there. We walked inside, took care of the
adoption details and I handed him the puppy.
Judy and I did not know what we would do or say
when the teacher showed up with her grandson. At
exactly eight o'clock the doorbell rang.
I
opened the door, and there was the schoolteacher
with her grandson standing behind her. I
explained to her the man had come for the puppy
after all, and there were no puppies left.
"I'm sorry, Jeffery. They found homes for
all the puppies," she told her grandson.
Just at that moment, the small puppy left in the
bedroom began to yelp (bark).
"My puppy! My puppy!" yelled the
little boy as he ran out from behind his
grandmother.
I just about to fall over when I saw that the small
child also had a cleft lip and palate. The boy
ran past me as fast as he could, down the
hallway to where the puppy was still yelping.
When the three of us made it to the bedroom, the
small boy was holding the puppy in his arms. He
looked up at his grandmother and said,
"Look, Grandma. They found homes for all
the puppies except the pretty one, and he looks
just like me.”
The schoolteacher turned to us, "Is this
puppy available?"
“Yes,” I answered. “That puppy is
available.”
The little boy, who was now hugging the puppy,
chimed in, "My grandma told me these kind
of puppies are real expensive and that I have to
take real good care of it."
The lady opened her purse, but I reached over
and pushed her hand back down into her purse so
that she would not pull her wallet out.
"How much do you think this puppy is
worth?" I asked the boy. "About a
dollar?" "No. This puppy is very, very
expensive," he replied.
"More than a dollar?" I asked.
"I'm afraid so," said his grandmother.
The boy stood there pressing the small puppy
against his cheek. "We could not possibly
take less than two dollars for this puppy,"
Judy said, squeezing my hand. "Like you
said, it's the pretty one."
The schoolteacher took out two dollars and
handed it to the young boy.
"It's your dog now, Jeffery. You pay the
man."
Still holding the puppy tightly, the boy proudly
handed me the money. Any worries I’d had about
the puppy’s future were gone.
The image of the little boy and his matching pup
stays with me still. I think it must be a
wonderful feeling for any young person to look at the mirror and see nothing, except "the
pretty one."
By Roger Dean
Kiser
Now
playing: Achy Break Heart
>
Related
inspiring web page, Puppies For Sale
Often
the real test of courage
is not to die, but to live.-Conte Vittorio Alfieri ~Destiny
is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing
to wait for, it is thing to achieve for.
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Tim
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