Miracles Happen: A Miracle Story about Adversity, Fate and Joy

 

Photo from pretendtious

By Colleen Kettenhofen

 

Miracles happen. This is a miracle story about what happens when we look for the lesson in every situation. After all, business and personal success is about attitude, overcoming adversity, and successfully managing change as well.
It was Easter, March 31, 2002 and I was on a hiking vacation with my husband in a California desert near where we lived. Our baby daughter, Caroline, was supposed to have been born on this date, but there were complications with the pregnancy and we lost her five months earlier on October 30. Three weeks later in November, we had put my 18 ½-year-old cat, "Baby," to sleep. Needless to say, with all this adversity we needed a vacation.
It was now late October, 2002, and we were living in Atlanta, Georgia. We'd been contemplating adopting a dog, yet it didn't seem right with our travel schedules. My husband was an airline pilot, and I was an international speaker. Still, I walked into an animal shelter having convinced myself I would "just look." In the shelter was a calm, sweet-faced puppy, eight or nine weeks old, who caught my attention. Sensing our chemistry and trust, I did what you're never supposed to do. I put my hand into her cage. While looking up at me with her big brown eyes, she licked my hand over and over. This innocent puppy was also highly intelligent and obviously knew how to sell herself. After many minutes, I pulled away and forced myself to walk towards the door. Already in love with her, I turned around, and there she was...still looking at me with those eyes.
A new puppy sounded wonderful, except that it didn't seem to fit into the lifestyle of an airline pilot and international speaker who traveled. And my husband kept telling me how much attention puppies require. Still, my gut feeling was that it was fate. We were supposed to have her. I couldn't stop thinking about her. I was going back to the Peachtree City animal shelter later the next morning to visit.
The next day at a garage sale, two smiling women walked up to me holding a puppy. As I looked more closely, I realized this was the puppy. The same one I'd been thinking of adopting. They placed her in my arms and said, "Would you like to adopt her? She's from the Peachtree City animal shelter. We can't have anymore pets, but she had only two hours to live. And we've named her Joy because she's already brought such joy to our lives."
Joy fit perfectly in my arms as she gazed up at me with those puppy-dog eyes. There was an inexplicable connection and incredible bond. I wanted to talk to my husband first, even though I had a feeling he'd say yes about her this time. They even offered to pet sit her for free.
Later that day, lunching with a friend, she said, "My gosh, Colleen, it's fate. You're supposed to have that puppy! Let's go see Joy tonight." We drove to their home and as we pulled in the driveway, my friend shrieked, "Oh Colleen, it's fate, it's fate!" I had no idea what she was talking about. She pointed to the car in front of us in the driveway, and in huge letters was a bumper sticker that simply read, "FATE." How many more "signs" did I need?! The family explained to us that night that their son had died unexpectedly a year earlier, that this was his car, his bumper sticker, and that he'd always believed in fate. They believed it was fate that I was supposed to have Joy. This was a miracle story about overcoming adversity, following fate and literally finding joy.
After playing with this happy puppy named Joy, I went home empty-handed that night. I needed to read some inspirational literature, and really think this over. After all, I wanted to make certain this puppy would be with us forever. As I pulled out this little book with its daily word message, I gasped. In big letters, the word of the day was JOY. It was fate! The next day my husband and I brought our bundle of "Joy" home. On Caroline's anniversary, October 30, 2002, there I was with Joy sitting in my lap riding in the car. And it was the only place she would sit. She refused to be anywhere but my lap.
My ex-husband and I are no longer together. Joy is a healthy 47 lbs, happily living in Portland, Oregon with me and her big cat brother. Pacific Northwest scenery is gorgeous. There's lots of family history here and many large fenced dog parks. My mother's cousins love to pet sit Joy since I still travel as a motivational speaker and author. They have a spacious backyard and a wonderful dog of their own.
Miracles happen. The lesson of this miracle story is that eventually, even through adversity, everything has a way of working out. Especially if we will roll with the punches, trust our gut, and follow our fate. Often, we get what we need, not necessarily what we think we want. Joy has literally given me pure joy. She is a miracle of love. A miracle story.
Copyright 2006 Colleen Kettenhofen

Colleen Kettenhofen is a motivational speaker, workplace expert, & co-author of "The Masters of Success," as featured on the Today Show, along with Ken Blanchard and Jack Canfield. http://www.ColleenSpeaks.com She has spoken in 47 states, 6 countries. Popular topics: leadership, management, difficult people, success, presentation skills. To order the book online, or for more free articles visit http://www.ColleenSpeaks.com colleen@colleenspeaks.com
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How I Lost My Dog - A Charming Story

Photo By scragz
Story By Orio Group

It may be hard to believe but the best day of my life started out as the very worst possible day imaginable. I had just moved into a brand new house in a city where I didn't know anyone, but I had my beloved pooch Princess with me to keep me company.

Princess is a large dog, part Border Collie and part Labrador Retriever, and she is really friendly and lovable and just makes me feel terrific no matter how bad my day at work has been. I honestly can't imagine what I would do without her, especially on that day as I didn't know anyone else in town.

I had arrived home from work but was in a hurry to get to the gym and didn't spend much time with Princess at all. I basically fed her and put her in the fenced back yard while I headed out to do my workout and get rid of the stress of the day.

When I arrived home I pulled into the garage and walked over to the gate of the fence. I was a bit surprised because I didn't hear Princess giving her usual welcoming bark, but I thought may be she was asleep and I would just surprise her.

Imagine my shock when I looking in the back yard and she wasn't there. I was immediately frantic and panicked, running around calling her name up and down the street. My neighbors, who I had yet to meet, immediately came running out to see what was wrong. They were so nice they started calling around, everyone out looking for Princess and phoning vets, animal hospitals and the local pound.

Finally, after several hours of calling, driving and walking we called the hunt for Princess off. I invited everyone to come back to my house for coffee and a snack since they had looked so hard for the dog. To my surprise, the minute I opened the door to the house Princess came jumping out, happy to see me and upset about being locked in the house all day. I guess I didn't really let her out in the backyard after all!

My neighbors were very gracious and everyone was just happy the dog was safe and sound. The next day my next door neighbor came back over with a welcome to the neighborhood gift. It was a beautiful charm bracelet with charms of kids, people, dogs and dog toys, plus charms of the major attractions in my new city.

She said it was to help me remember my scary yet happy first day in the neighborhood, the day I didn't really lose my dog! Now, years later, I still look back fondly on my charms and bracelet and remember how I got to know all my neighbors in one very stressful day.


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The Benefits Of Walking Your Dog

The Benefits of Walking With Your Dog

Some rights reserved by mikebaird

By Gerry Restrivera

Walking is one of the easiest and best exercises to keep ones body and mind healthy. Of course one of the best ways to enjoy your daily walk is to do it with your loving pet. Enjoying the benefits of walking with your dog is not just fun for you but to your canine friend as well.
Parks are the common place to walk with your dog. Of course you should know ahead of time if your dog is allowed in the park to avoid hassles and breaking the law. So do your homework before walking your dog in the park to make sure you and your dog will have fun. There are many benefits of walking with your dog and here are some of them.
Walking is good for the health. Walking is good not only for your heart but also for your overall health. You can do it every morning before going to work or on weekends. This physical activity is also good for your dog especially if your place is not big enough for your pet to move around. One of the best benefits of walking with your dog is to keep you and your dog healthy.
A chance for you and your dog to socialize. If you are working all day, walking will give you the chance to socialize with neighbors and other pet lovers. We all need to socialize to relax especially if your work is too stressful. Dogs are social animals and one of the benefits of walking with your dog is to allow your dog to socialize with people and other dogs. Like humans, dogs need social interactions to relieve stress and learn good behavior. This activity will help your dog to be friendly with people and other animals. If your dog is exposed to social situations, his social skills will greatly improve and he will be less afraid of people and less likely to engage in fights with other dogs. The exposure in public places and the experiences in interacting with people and other dogs will teach your dog the proper behavior in greeting people visiting your home.
The best chance for you to train your dog. Walking with your dog is the best chance to conduct obedience training with your dog. This is the best time to review your dog with the basic commands and good behaviors you taught him. Being on a different territory while walking with your dog, the mental ability of your dog will be stimulated and improved with this kind of activity. All his senses are working while investigating the new territory and performing the tasks that you taught him therefore, increasing his mental ability and alertness.
Bonding time for you and your pet. Of course one of the greatest benefits of walking with your dog is you get to spend time and bond with your lovely and loyal friend. Dogs want to spend time with their owners to feel loved. Although your pet is living with you, at home your attention is usually divided between household chores and your family. Walking your dog gives you and your loving pet the chance to bond and enjoy each other.
Of course aside from the benefits of walking with your dog, you have to be cautious when you are out with your dog in public places. Keep your dog on a leash when walking with you. Letting your dog roam freely in public places can be dangerous not only to people and other animals but to your dog as well. Continuously training your dog is important to teach him the proper behavior.
Learn how to raise an obedient dog using the proper training visit Secrets to Dog Training.

Gerry Restrivera writes informative articles on various subjects including The Benefits of Walking With Your Dog. You are allowed to publish this article in its entirety provided that author's name, bio and website links must remain intact and included with every reproduction.

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A Dog Story

By Martin Magano

Note: This story is unaccompanied by a dog photo, as it would ruin the end of the story. This is such a delight to read! Enjoy!

Its a very peaceful morning here at home. I'm sitting here at the porch watching the rain, the great gardener watering her plants patting them with little drops of joy. It's one of these days that I feel grateful to be alive, although sometimes I still miss her. My summer love and friend in a whole package.

Her name was Cory but in my world, I see her as my Juliet and the beauty incarnate that I be so lucky to have met. The first time I saw her was when she came in to our house, and it was a momentous occasion. I was eating breakfast and I didn't even notice that the food in my mouth fell back out because I seemed to have lost control of it with my jaw hanging down as i gazed unto her. She looked back at me and her eyes smiled, then she lowered her eyes to my mouth and the steady flow of food out of it, and she giggled.
Soon after, we hit it off. She said they were to stay there for a portion of summer. My heart was so pleased with all the anticipation of spending time with her but my mind just cant stop calculating how many days, hours and seconds are slowly fading before she goes away. But with just one of her giggles or her smiles, all my worries go away.

I trembled at the sheer power from those giggles and smiles for they have the power to stun me and sometimes make me do things I don't usually do.

Things I never knew I could...like on the third day of her stay here, I was watching her as she was having a lovely stroll out in front of the house when Butch came by and in one glance at her, came zooming back. Anyone would be okay with me, I'd accept it if she likes him. But its Butch! The neighborhood bully and notorious heartbreaker. Now I'm just an average guy and not much good for anything, especially against Butch who I think is so huge that I'm just a match for one of his legs.

But courage flickered inside me when I saw Cory doesn't like him and is starting to get irritated as he kept coming on to her. I jumped from where I was sitting and dashed for Butch's side. My head collided with him with much force. He fell down from my surprise attack. I remember my head hurt insanely. Butch must have muscles like steel for I had a bump on my head for a whole week.

After smiling intently at each other, we realized that Butch was about to recover. So we ran away as fast as we can and paying no attention to where we were going. It felt good, running with her. Soon after, our rugged breaths became laughter and giggles. We wound up in a tulip garden just outside our small town. We played there the whole day running around and just... laughing. Those were one of the things I'll remember for the rest of my life, I think I was falling deeply in love with her.

Then it suddenly rained hard, the first rain after summer. The rain felt good. I was about to run for it when I saw in the corner of my eyes that she's just staring at me smiling. I wanted to tell her that we better get out of the rain but she had that kind of look on her face... then I smiled back and we played in the rain. I could almost hear the rain performing a symphony just for us and the tulips dancing to the music.

I woke up on my bed the next day flaming with fever and colds. I would have felt miserably awful but then I felt her beside me smiling. As it appears, she has a fever as well, we laughed about it the whole day. Onto the next days, we spent much time together... nursing each other back to health, making sure the other is warm enough and properly fed. We just stayed indoors watching the rain outside sitting on the porch side by side. We didn't even notice that we already got well.

After a few days, they left. I just woke up without her by my side and nowhere to be seen. I even went back to the tulip garden, but she wasn't there... it was a clean break, like waking up from a very very great and fantastic dream back to my lonely colorless life... I'll never forget her... my summer love.

And so here I am watching the rain here on the porch, remembering the good old days...
I hear footsteps behind me but I don't turn and look, I'm too depressed for it. He sits at the chair beside me and slides a bowl in front of me with "CODY" written on it.

"I bet you miss her... yeah, I miss her master too." my master said as he watches the rain with me. He then gently tussles my hair and pretty soon my tail starts to wiggle...
I won't be completely lonely, still have my master...
"A Dog Story"
by martin magano

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By diveofficer

Dog Depression - A Story About Dekker

By Donna White

Many dogs came and went throughout our career as Dog Trainers for Law Enforcement. There are a few that stand out for different reasons. Dekker is one of them.


Background

This is a story about Dekker, a Belgian Malinois we trained as a K-9 Police Officer. This story is also the reason we quit training dogs for Law Enforcement after 15 years.

During a trip to Europe to purchase dogs, we traveled to France to attend a Ring Sport Competition. It was this trip in 1985 that changed our way of thinking regarding the best candidate for a Police Dog. As we watched each dog work the obstacles and protection trials, we felt that the Belgian Malinois was superior to the German Shepherd in agility, and equal or better in all other areas.

In 1988, we acquired Anka and Dekker, two Belgian Malinois. We absolutely loved their drive and enthusiasm to work. After a few months of tracking, agility and protection training, we sold Anka to a Fish and Wildlife Officer. Feedback reports indicated Anka as being an exceptional tracker for poachers and protected her Handler perfectly. We were pleased with Anka's placement and her Handler was more than satisfied.

We continued to work with Dekker. He was always happy to do anything we asked of him in his training lessons. He had a well-rounded life with us as part of our family. At one point, we had two litters of Bouvier des Flandres puppies totaling 22. They were a handful once the younger litter reached six weeks old, but Uncle Dekker would spend time with all of them, grabbing his long rag and teasing the puppies to chase him, latching on to the rag for a ride. He was a wonderful, well-adjusted dog.


Dekker's Career

The day came when we received a phone call from a police department inquiring if we had another dog like Anka, as word had spread about her outstanding performance. We informed the Police Officer that we did indeed have another Belgian Malinois that would fit his requirements. Every dog we placed with a Police K-9 Unit received 2 weeks of instruction and training, which included evaluation of the bonding process because believe it or not, not all dogs like their Handlers. The first reservation we had about this K-9 Unit was that the dog was kept in a kennel at the police station instead of living in a family environment. The Handler assured us that Dekker would spend the majority of his time with him and only be in the kennel when absolutely necessary.

On the third day of Dekker's 2 week probation as a K-9 Officer, he made a felony drug arrest. The Handler was very pleased with Dekker and we felt we had placed him where he would do the most good.

There are Police Dog Trials that K-9 Handlers can enter for prizes and recognition within the Police K-9 community. Because Dekker was so good at his job, his Handler started entering him in these competitions. Dekker was now working regular shifts as a K-9 Officer, training for competitions, attending competitions and winning. During a conversation we had with the Handler regarding Dekker's success at yet another Police Dog Trial, we reinforced the fact that he needed "down time" to relax, play and forget training and his job. The Handler assured us that he was doing as we had suggested.

Time went by and as is normal, the phone calls from Dekker's Handler became fewer, but eventually we received a phone call from him expressing concern that Dekker was being lazy and listless on the job. We asked if he was still competing in dog trials and the Handler gave a negative response because Dekker had lost the last few trials he had entered. Our advice was for rest, play and cut back on training sessions outside of on-duty hours.


Depression

A short time later, Dekker's Handler called again, complaining that the dog was not performing at work and he wanted to return him for a refund. We convinced him to send Dekker back to us for evaluation and to see if we could remedy the situation.

Upon picking Dekker up at the airport, we opened his dog crate to let him out and he just sat there with his head lowered and big sad eyes. We inspected him and could see that he had lost weight, his posture was submissive, his coat was dull and he did not want to make eye contact. The word anxiety seems the best word to describe the body language of tail wagging because he was happy see us, but weaving around our legs and whining indicated he was apprehensive, worried, and had mixed feelings about what was going to happen next. We brought him home, having confidence that we could help him past this behavior which was far from his normal self.

We set out to do everything that was familiar to him; same kennel, same routines, lots of play, same dogs to play with, our loving attention, and so on. There was nothing different at our home and kennel, except Dekker. Months of coaxing and trying desperately to have just one happy moment was breaking our hearts. He moped, slunk around, no eye contact, heavy sighs, lying in the corner while the other dogs played, no interest in his surroundings, eating only enough food to keep going, and then eventually skipping days of eating. We gave him special attention, enticing food, more of our time and basically put him in our back pocket, taking him everywhere we went. We spent hours analyzing his behavior, both past and present, to try to come up with more ideas or a solution to the whole mess. We brought in other Dog Trainers to observe and evaluate him for some clue to work with. Nothing.

After 4 months we finally concluded that Dekker was not going to find his way back to what he was. His weight was alarmingly low and we couldn't help him anymore. He was finally euthanized. That was the day we said, "That's it, no more." We quit training police dogs.


Conclusion

Back then, we referred to this behavior as broken, sour, or lazy. We really didn't associate Dekker's behavior with depression, but in hindsight that is exactly what it was. A dog so far in the dark zone that he couldn't fight his way back to the light and happiness.

We will never know what actually happened to him during his career as a K-9 Police Officer. People tend not to reveal every detail of a spiraling situation if it is their fault, so we can't pinpoint the cause. We can only guess that he was worked to the point of exhaustion with no rest or rewards.

Yes, there is such a thing as dog depression. Please take note of the above behaviors. We couldn't help Dekker, but if you have a dog that you suspect is showing characteristics of depression, seek help from a professional dog psychologist.

Donna White is an experienced and responsible dog owner, retired dog breeder and wife/assistant to a retired Police K-9 Trainer. We are "paying forward" what we have learned throughout the years as professional dog trainers, family dog owners, and dog breeders. Visit her website for more training articles and quality products for your dog - http://www.dog-crate-shop.com.

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