Oh Glorious Day

Today is probably the most important day to me, as a Christian. It is the day that we recognize as the day our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, rose from the grave. It is the day that He claimed victory over death and secured our place in heaven for all of eternity... if we choose HIM.

I chose to accept Jesus as my Savior and God's grace January 11, 1971.

I will write more later. I just wanted to make sure the day did not end without proclaiming God's promise and saying thank you for saving me.

http://youtu.be/VXp6xcY5IqU

NEW TO US

Well, it has certainly been a long time since I have written anything in this blog. I was looking at one of the blogs that I follow and noticing how cute it is. I thought it is about time that I changed up the look of my blog a bit. I hope that you like it. I had a "wee bit" of trouble getting it done.

There is another change that has taken place this weekend. Doug bought a new truck! Well, it is a used truck, but it is new to him. It is a fire engine red Nissan Titan quad cab V8. The back seat is huge and the engine is bigger than his other red truck so it feels more powerful. It rides nicely and Pearl likes her seat in the middle. Doug was planning on giving his truck to Ally, but now it might be going to Michael and Michael's truck might be going to Ally. No Ally isn't driving yet, but it won't be long at all until she is in Driver's Ed. She likes Michael's truck better and it won't hold as many people... and it has a huge grill guard on the front of it. Watch out drivers! Then if Michael and Michelle take Doug's truck, there will be room for their dogs when they go to Illinois.

What do you mean who is Pearl? Last summer, on her way here to visit, Nichole nearly ran over a little dog. After she saw the dog nearly get hit two more times, she decided to put it in the back of her pickup and bring it here with her. This little - and I mean about 5 pounds - dog appeared to be a really shabby, Yorkshire terrier. It's hair was really long and unkept. She had areas, mostly around her rear end, that had almost no hair. Her toe nails were so long that they had grown almost into the pads on her feet. She had the stinkiest breath... and body odor that I had ever smelled on a dog. AND THE FLEAS!!! I could see the fleas on her from three feet away. I was afraid to touch her.

We fed her and gave her some water, but we left her in the back of the truck that night. Nichole dipped her - twice and sprayed her for fleas on top of that. We took her to a vet that we found open on Saturday morning. She had no identification and no microchip. The vet said that almost all of her teeth were rotten and would have to come out, but not until she had been on antibiotics for a while. She also said that she was probably between five and 10 years old. She said that she was malnourished also, but she was worth saving. So then we took her to the dog wash for another bath. Nichole bought her a bed that she promptly crawled in and went to sleep.

Nichole took her home for a couple of weeks and then we had to baby sit her. Nichole had named her Pearl because it is an "old lady" name and she is an "old lady" of a dog. Doug and I didn't really like the name Pearl, but by the time we got her back, she was used to the name. Nichole wanted us to keep Pearl because her dog, Piper, didn't really like her too much. I didn't want her to go to a shelter and maybe be destroyed after all we had done to save her. We decided to keep Pearl and so we took her to our vet, Jack Callan. Jack said Pearl was much closer to 10 years than she was to five. A few weeks later, he anesthetized her and pulled her bad teeth. A few weeks later, she got her shots and then we could take her to be groomed. We got her a "teddy bear" cut and she looked like a whole new dog!

Pearl is a "daddy's girl". Oh she loves me, but she adores Doug! She likes to ride in the car (and truck). In fact, if you say the word GO or pick up your keys, she can beat you to the door. She is quite vocal. She barks when she wants to eat, potty, go, sit in your lap and when she is ready for bed. She sleeps in the bed with us. She has beds on the couch, by the front door and in the breakfast nook. The groomer says that she has been groomed in the past, because she stands perfectly still for them and doesn't mind anything they do. I don't know what their secret is, but she doesn't like it when we bathe her. I am sure that she must have traveled with her previous owner because she is so much at home in the car.

I don't know what her previous life was like, or if they miss her much, but I can't imagine life without her. She is the best dog that we have ever had. Thank you Nichole for bringing Pearl to us!!!