AND I THOUGHT NOTHING COULD SURPRISE ME!

You know, you'd think a girl could at least count on her dog, but this weekend, my dog Kipper surprised me. A lot! He had been acting rather strange all Friday evening. Bridges of Madison County was on tv (do you remember that movie from the 90's with Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood?). I was trying to watch it but ever few minutes, Kipper would get up and look at me, whine and pace. This is very unlike my dog. Normally, he comes and lays by me in the evenings. I scritch him periodically behind the ears and he is peaceful. Finally, I let him out in the yard. It was beautiful weather so I thought an hour out there for him and I could watch the rest of my movie in peace. To be honest, and this is rather embarrassing, I sort of forgot about him out there and got ready for bed. I realized I needed to let him in. He came rather reluctantly which was also unusual. Usually he'd rather be inside with us than outside by himself. It was now after midnight.

About 2 a.m. I hear insistent whining so I let him outside, thinking Kip needed a potty break. I sat down in the chair and promptly fell back to sleep. I didn't wake back up until about 4:30 a.m. I flew outside, feeling guilty for leaving the poor dog outside half the night. Instead of laying by the back door, he was in the corner of the yard. I called him to me and he ignored me. I called him again, more sternly. He started walking, very slowly back to me, glancing over his shoulder to that corner. I put him in his crate and went back to bed. At 6 a.m. he started whining again so I just let him out of his crate, thinking maybe he was too warm or something. Besides, I didn't care; I wanted to go back to sleep already. By 7:30 a.m. the whining and pacing had increased to the point that my husband got up and let him outside.

About an hour later, my husband came and sat on the edge of the bed with a strange look on his face. "Honey, I just took a big rabbit away from Kipper." I sat straight up in bed and screeched, "He killed it?" Turns out, my dog who is the most laid back, non-predatory dog you could possibly imagine, had not only killed but mangled an adult rabbit. No wonder he was antsy all night long. When my husband had taken it away, Kipper had it propped between his paws, licking away, blood on his muzzle and white paws. Later, I had to wash away blood from under his chin.

I know it sounds silly, but I felt sort of stunned by this turn of events. I had always seen my dog as a certain way, and I felt a bit betrayed that he was so different. I couldn't look at him in the same way after he had killed something and apparently enjoyed it. Despite good intentions, I had humanized my dog way more than I had thought. But the truth was, Kipper was just being a dog. Dog's have predator instincts. Granted, I thought Kipper's were pretty dormant, but he was still a dog. And dog's sometimes kill small, fuzzy animals.

I guess it is the same way with people too. We see someone in a certain way and then they do something that shakes that picture we have of them and we feel betrayed. The thing is though, people are human. And humans makes mistakes, make poor choices and sin. God knew that. He knows we are dust and that we are going to mess up. Nothing we do every comes as a surprise to Him. Consequently, when someone shakes your image of them, you can rest in the knowledge that even if it came as a surprise to you, it didn't to God.

~ Blessings, Bronte