DailySusan Humor Blog

MAKE ROOM FOR SUNNY

A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast:
but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
-- Proverbs 12:10

Our dog Shadow was a reindeer for our Christmas card, posed as Dolly Parton in my cheap blonde wig, and served as Lady Godiva’s horse during the nudist phase of one of our children. She never chewed or wrecked a thing. A black Labrador retriever, she was the best dog ever.

When she died at age 12, I said, “That’s it. My heart is broken. It’ll never have room for another dog.”

Well, that was two years ago. Suddenly, there’s a blonde whirlwind in our house that barks and wags and chases her tail. Our new baby sleeps in Shadow’s old kennel in the laundry room, with the dryer for a lullabye and a rawhide bone for a pacifier.

Suddenly, there’s room in my heart -- plenty of room -- to welcome a dancing spot of sunshine who came to us on a drab winter day.

We’re calling her “Sunny,” because she’s a Lab like Shadow, only she has tawny golden fur, and a bright, happy personality to match.


Funny how a dog makes a family complete. Funny how sharing your life with an animal makes you a better human. Funny how day-to-day irritations and stresses melt away in the wriggling and licking, prancing and pouncing.

She fake-barks, investigates, worries a corner of the rug, and then plunk! She’s beat. She snuggles into your chest and falls asleep on the spot. You see those whiskers coming out of her eyebrows, pat that puppy tummy, smell that puppy smell and . . .

. . . you’re smitten. I’ve never known anyone who can resist.

My husband’s going to train her to be his bird dog for hunting pheasant, quail and ducks. Besides all the wacky hunting accessories he’s been buying lately, now he’s coming home with DOG accessories: a pistol that shoots blanks, to fire when she’s eating so she won’t be gun-shy (move over, Atkins; it’s the new diet aid: gunfire!) . . . special batons to throw into our neighborhood pond to train the dog to retrieve (like a stick won’t work) . . . a huge net bag of eerily real-looking duck decoys, two of which wound up in our tub (what’s a bath without a rubber ducky?) . . . and even a synthetic dead bird wing.

How have we survived this long without a dead bird wing in the house?

Also, he recently bagged 18 quail. I have been informed that I may have to keep one or more of them in our freezer for training purposes for this dog. You know, right between the popsicles and last month’s chili. Ewwww!

So she’ll be a fearless, well-trained hunter to make his four or five weekends per year as a macho man more productive and fun.

But most of the time, she’s going to be my baby, my companion, my best friend, just like Shadow. She already naps at my feet when I write . . . or do dishes . . . or try to walk anywhere. I’m the one who calms her when she’s yipping and holds her snout when she’s nipping.

If only it were that easy rearing teenagers.

Maddy, 4, is smitten, too. She carries Sunny around like a doll, chills out on her sheepskin with her, and runs to fetch her toys instead of the other way around.

We’re a dog family again. It feels good.

I was doing OK ‘til I found that Maddy had unplugged her nightlight from her own room, and put it in the outlet near Sunny’s kennel. “I didn’t want her to be scared in the dark,” she whispered with loving concern.

The nightlight is an angel. I got choked up, since Maddy always says Shadow is an angel now.

I think our faithful friend is watching us fall in love again, just like we did with her. And I know she’s thumping her tail.

This time, she doesn’t have a Dolly Parton wig or reindeer horns on her head, but a golden halo. And she’s singing . . . what else? The “Howleluia Chorus.”

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Prayer request: We lift up to You a faithful and sweet believer, Barb, who fears that her marriage is in jeopardy because of her husband’s midlife crisis. There’s anger, self-isolation, a communication breakdown, and the absence of physical love between them. Barb is doing everything right: she has asked him to tell her what’s wrong, forgiven him and asked for his forgiveness . . . but she has hit a brick wall. Holy Spirit, break down that wall and let love and joy flow strongly again between these two precious people, who promised long ago before Your altar to love each other, no matter what. (Psalm 9:10)

Prayer request: If it be Your will, throw up a blockade around Your young servant Rodney, and keep him from getting mononucleosis so he can go to Thailand on a mission trip and spread the good news about You. But if he gets sick, help him to accept Your purpose and the “mission” You may have for him in this! (Psalm 34:19)

Praise report: Thank You, Lord, that so many people have come forward to join our e-baby shower for the unmarried young woman who chose to bear her child instead of having an abortion (Feb. 20, “The Mommy Ring”). May their gifts give her a supernatural boost of encouragement when she receives them on Resurrection Sunday – the day Your Son showed what happens when we choose life. (Psalm 105:8)