Reflection 4 - Mickey's Story

8/25/2009 7:44:01 PM

Isn’t it funny how you instinctively know when it’s time to get a pet?  Tim and I knew, but not until that moment.  We were traveling to another town to purchase mountain bikes and as we passed the Humane Society, I felt a gentle Presence nudging me.  I shared that with Tim, who knows I take these leadings seriously.  We had been talking about getting another dog and now, it seemed, it was time.  We turned around and went in.

We entered the adult dog section and chaos erupted.  Jumping, barking, excited dogs greeted us one by one as we slowly walked between the kennels.  All, that it, except one: a medium-sized mixed black lab.  As we walked by her kennel, we looked down to see a forlorn little face, already somewhat white at the muzzle.  The card said her name was Mickey.  She didn’t move or jump when we walked by, as though to say ‘you couldn’t possibly want me.’  Only her eyes moved as she looked up at us, but in that look I saw a soul filled with longing and love.

Something stirred within me, a connection reaching from her heart to mine and back again.  I said, “Honey, look at this dog.”  Tim said, “Let’s just keep walking and look at all of them.”  We did.  And all of them jumped and barked their greetings.  We turned around and slowly walked back until we came to Mickey.  And again, she simply sat there and looked at us.

We took her to the outside yard to get a better look.  She obviously had just had puppies; her coat was wiry so we thought she might be mixed with a terrier type breed.  We learned later her coat was silky black; she just hadn’t been adequately fed.  The staff told us she had been found abandoned with her puppies.

Mickey was very tentative with us.  She was covered from head to toe with dead ticks (she hadn’t been in the shelter very long).  There was nothing about her at that point to make her attractive except those soulful eyes and something that told us that she was meant for us.

The shelter staff was excited because the adult mother seldom is adopted before the puppies.  We took Mickey home.  It was a soft spring day and I took her to our back yard and began to pull the dead ticks off.  She leaned against me trustingly and allowed me to work on her.

When I became a pastor, we moved into a townhouse in that community.  The church musician and his wife fell in love with Mickey and adopted her as their granddog.  We gave them a key to our house; they would take Mickey for walks almost every day.  This couple was well known in the community and soon, Mickey was walking everywhere with them.  They also kept her when we went on vacations.  Their home was her second home.

Being quite the sociable, happy, gentle soul she was, Mickey made many friends in the community.  She knew many more people than we did.  Once after a significant snow storm, we were shoveling our walk out front and Mickey was with us as usual.  A man walked by whom we didn’t know.  He glanced over and glanced again and stopped.  “Mickey!” he exclaimed and bent down to hug her.

Tim and I just looked at each other and laughed.  Another of Mickey’s conquests.

If I had to choose one word to describe her it would be ‘gentle.’  That was her nature and it was born not from her bad experiences of being beaten down, but from a trusting heart that refused to give up on love.  We had a connection, Mickey and I, that I’d never felt before with any of my pets.  I was grateful for the blessing of Mickey in my life.

She left as unexpectedly as she came, and her loss was something for which I was totally unprepared.

This story continues in the Journal Entries, The Early Years, Part 2 – Losing Mickey.

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