Dear Reader:

A sweet Christmas Godwink story in Squire Rushnell’s book ( God Wink Christmas Stories) touched me since my whole family is very dog loving… especially Tommy and Kaitlyn who donate time and money to help abandoned and stray dogs find their forever home.

In this particular true remembrance story the narrator reflects on herself in childhood as being ” one of those dorky kids who wore saddle shoes, painfully shy, and loved four-legged friends over the human race.”

Every December, without fail, she wrote to Santa and all she wanted was a DOG. But that wish was never granted because her mother interceded with an emphatic ” NO!”

But this didn’t stop the little girl from dreaming and praying so hard for a furry puppy under the tree. It never happened.

She understood her mother’s inbred fear of dogs but it still didn’t ease the Christmas morning disappointment. Her mother’s grandfather had tragically died after being bitten by a rabid dog. He had suffered a horrible death.

One day she asked one too many times… when her mother was suffering through a migraine and she screamed out- ” The ONLY way you are going to get a dog is if someone leaves it to you in their will!”

The little girl never asked again but then she did, indirectly, at least get to spend time with a dog- a former tenant had an elderly mother who needed a dog sitter. At twelve she could handle it and earn money at the same time. Since she would be keeping it at the elderly woman’s home… her mother agreed.

It was a wonderful little dog named Spotty ( mix of cocker spaniel and border collie) The bond between the girl and dog grew stronger with each visit. One day just before Christmas the tenant sadly disclosed that his mother had passed but left the girl something in her will… it was in the car.

Spotty jumped out as the door opened and she made a beeline for the girl. She was frozen in time as they hugged wondering if her mother would remember her off-handed” commitment remark. She was shaking holding the overjoyed dog. Time froze in the air.

Finally her mother’s strained voice whispered ” I guess I don’t have much choice.” It was the closest thing to a miracle the girl would ever experience. God had answered her prayer in the most unexpected way. Spotty lived to be seventeen and before she passed her mother could be caught sneaking Spotty an extra treat.

So until tomorrow…Under Reflections at the end of the story we have all heard ” God works in mysterious ways” … Rushnell reminds us God can move Heaven and Earth just for us. He will make a way where there is no way.” A way that ends with a snuggle and a lick on the face.

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh