Then one stormy afternoon (back in March) I drove in and discovered the culprit! There was a huge, gorgeous German Shepherd under my trailer. I have been hoping for a stray cat to come along, but this was even better!
I slowly walked over and started standing up the sewer pipe again. But the dog was scared. He struggled to his feet and drug himself out from under the trailer, literally. The poor thing had no use of his front right leg. It hung from the shoulder and was all bloody on one side.
A bucket of water and food and coaxing... nothing helped. He always stayed a good 30 yards away from me, and kept dragging himself toward the busy interstate. I quickly retreated and was relieved to see that the dog didn’t have the energy to climb the bank to the road. He was delirious and finally collapsed in the middle of the 3 acres of grassy lawn to lick his leg. It started pouring rain, but he just stayed there...
No one would come help me... How would I ever get him into the car and to the vet myself? He was injured and would probably bite me if I could get close enough...
Finally, I called the Animal Control Center and they promised they would come get him. They also promised that they wouldn’t put him down for three days, giving someone time to adopt him, etc. But after 1 1/2 hours of pouring rain, no one had come yet! I called again and begged them to please come soon; the dog was still in the cold drenching rain, and it was getting dark. I thought for sure they would come with a tranquilizer gun and carry “my dog” off to the vet.
But the call was answered by one lone, little lady with a long stick with a noose on the end. She chased “my dog” around half-heartedly it seemed. When I saw her out there I ran out to help. But the dog had already made it to the edge of the woods and flung itself into the brush and disappeared.
The lady told me that if I saw it again to give them a call. They had been chasing this very dog for over a week starting at the mall some 6 miles away. She was disgusted to see that it had been hit by a car. And she promised that if it was still around tomorrow they wouldn’t chase it anymore, but would bring a large live-trap. That night I prayed for the poor dog, and put some bread under the trailer in case it came back.
The next morning the bread was gone and the sewer pipe was knocked over again! I called the lady and told her to bring the trap - he’s still around! But three days went by and they never brought the trap (because of the rain they said). The sewer pipe only got knocked over one more time. The fat neighbor cats were pigging out on the food...
After three days with no signs of Victor ( I couldn’t help but name him. Even had it all figured out how I could keep him and get him back to Iowa and everything.) I started to think that he must be dead in the woods somewhere. And every vulture I saw became suspect. I was heartbroken.
How can I fall in love with a dog in one day? I thought about that a lot. I had such intense feelings for that dog. I cried twice about him. What in the world?!?! It was the same kinds of feelings I had for guys I have liked. I thought that was “love.” But how could I have “love” for a dog, a dog that I only saw for one day? I know it sounds strange. It is strange to me too! But I finally figured it out.
That dog needed mothering! That is an instinct for all women. And I have seen before that I tend to “like” the guys who need mothering. This emotion that I barely understood and have always taken for “love” must be purely a mothering instinct. Probably all the women reading this have felt it. Probably most of you have figured it out already. I have been told many times over that this feeling was the mothering instinct, but I guess I wouldn’t believe it until now. Victor showed me that I can even “love” a dog in one day!
At first I hated this emotion. It has only ever caused me pain, I fumed. But I am starting to admit that it is something God put there for a reason. If I ever have screaming brats of my own I will be glad for the intense mothering instinct - it must help a lot to carry a Mom through those days when all other loves fail! And this mothering love has helped me deal with people that I meet in the communities where I work. And I’m sure I have been the recipient of it from many of the women in my life. I am certainly glad that they have this mothering love toward me!
It isn’t the kind of love that would hold a marriage together. It isn’t the kind of love that would sacrifice itself for another. (or I would have tackled Victor and not worried about getting bitten!) It isn’t the kind of love that my parents have for me, or my siblings, or even my friends. And it makes for a lot of heartbreaks when it is refused or not allowed for some reason or another. (like death or separation) But it must be important somewhere along the line. I guess I just need to distinguish it from the deeper loves.
P.S. I met a lady door-to-door two weeks ago who works for a veterinarian. She understands my mothering love - she has a houseful of dogs that nobody else wanted. : ) She also knows the lady who runs the animal control... Last week when I saw her again she told me that Victoria was found! She has already been to the vet and put into a foster home to be tamed! It sounds as though a lot of the people who met Victoria fell in love with her too. She doesn’t need a home anymore. Prayers heard!
I'm glad they were able to get her to a vet and into a foster home. I probably would've been freakin ouut tryn to figure out if she was ok or not during the days u hadn't seen her as well.
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