A Thankful Thanksgiving, Indeed

When you think Thanksgiving, you think of getting together with your entire family, sometimes with a dreaded few, eating a lot of turkey (or for me, mac n cheese and cranberry sauce!!), then going home and laying on the couch the rest of the night. And quite honestly, that's what I expected again this year.

I was driving to Jacksonville this afternoon and out of nowhere a little dog ran out into the road and began running down the middle between both sides of traffic, but right on the line next to my lane. Something happens in my brain in moments like these that I just can't explain. I go into savior/rescuer mode immediately and will do anything and everything to prevent disaster happening to a helpless animal. Uh yeah, forget me and my poor car and all the traffic, it's all about the dog at this point. This time, I stopped four lanes of mid-afternoon Jacksonville traffic all by myself and ran to this little dog to save him from turning into smushed dog guts. If I had not stopped my car behind him, I probably would not have been able to avoid hitting him. He was so scared that as I ran toward him whistling and calling, he turned to me and ran straight toward me as if to say "Save me!", and immediately flopped onto his back once he reached my feet. He was terrified. I scooped him up, waved a quick "thanks" to everyone that stopped, and hopped back into my car with him.

Now that I was sitting in the middle of busy road with a tiny shaking dog on my lap, I knew that I couldn't take him home with me because he'd be terrified of my big "bullies", but I knew the perfect place. I called my mom and told her to put her insane-o Boston terrier in his crate... I'm coming over with another dog. :)

I took him to Mom's and told her I thought he'd be the perfect companion for my grandmother. After all, he had no tags or collar so there was no way to find his owner, and to be quite honest, I didn't find him in the best of neighborhoods anyway. My grandmother is 82 and has some health problems but still lives in her own home. Since Grandpa passed over a decade ago, she just wasn't quite herself. We got her another dog shortly after Grandpa died, a chow named Bear. Bear was a good dog to her and they were great friends, but Bear fell to old age recently and she was now without a friend. Mom had looked for another dog for her but just hadn't found a good match yet since Grandma is feeble and can't handle a whole ton of responsibility because of her age and her mind.

Mom and I agreed to give it a try so we went to pick up some starter supplies like a collar and leash and some food. She had a spare crate that is too small for her Boston now, so we loaded everything up in her car, dog and all, and went to Grandma's.

Here's Mom on the back porch holding the dog, waiting for Grandma to answer the door.



Grandma opened the door and was literally so stunned she was speechless! First she saw Mom holding the dog and I think she was just happy to see an animal. Then she saw me and I think she realized something must be up! Mom explained to her that I'd found him this afternoon and we were going to let her give him a try and see how he works out for her. I think we really made her day!



She sat down with him on her lap and didn't want to let him go. After a few minutes of letting him sniff around and get aquainted with the surroundings, we ran to Kmart to pick up her medicine, and when we came back, she was on the couch and had him wrapped up in a little blanket on her lap! :)

So tomorrow's not going to be about turkey and cranberry sauce for me anymore. It's about being thankful that another little dog was saved and making my Grandma the happiest woman in the world for a day. I was holding back the tears when I saw how happy she was and how content the little boy seemed to be snuggled in her lap, and to know that I made those two that happy today is reason enough to be thankful for me!