Audrey was feeling pretty handy after she built the doggy door herself. She wanted her new puppy Baxter to be able to sleep inside, but now he could go outside to go bathroom. But she also did it so Baxter could get comfortable with the neighborhood kids in the yards next to hers.
That's because she was training him to one day be able to minister to troubled youth with her. Audrey had alcoholic, neglectful parents but it was only because of an old neighbor lady that took Audrey under her wing, and a dog that was her constant companion did she end up somewhat normal.
For now she was a elementary teacher. But summer was coming up and she was wondering if she was ready to start helping kids in her neighborhood somehow. But what kid would want an elementary school teacher budging into their busy summer lives.
School kept her away during daytime hours, but they had pretty much mastered Baxter’s potty training 6 months ago. A neighbor had been kind enough to let Baxter outside to go potty at lunch, up until now. And Baxter took to the doggy door with no problems. However, to Audrey's dismay a week after the doggy door was installed Baxter started peeing all over the floor. When she got home and saw this the first time she was mad and scolded him. Then she scolded him even harder the second, third and fourth day it happened. Maybe it was just a bad habit she had to condition out of him again. But at the end of the week of punishing Baxter, she was just perplexed.
She sat on her little backyard patio that Saturday, with her coffee, looking down at Baxter. “What is going on with you, Buddy? This isn’t going to work if you pee everywhere when we’re helping kids out.”
Just then a football thumped into her yard and Baxter looked in its direction.
“Miss Johnson, can we come get our football in your yard, please?” Sean was a 12 year old, the oldest of the neighborhood kids, and kind of the posse leader.
“Of course, Sean," she said.
Baxter whined lightly. Sean's little sister looked from behind the fence, fascinated with the Puppy.
Sean leapt over the short chain link fence, with surprising ease.
“How has your mom been doing, Sean?” Audrey asked.
“She’s still sick,” he replied.
“I’m sorry to hear that," she said. "Tell her I’m praying for her.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Sean grabbed the ball and leapt handily back over the fence even as it wobbled a little. "C'mon grace get in the goal." He commanded his little sister.
Audrey thought Sean had been acting a little weird lately. But who wouldn't if their mom was riddled with cancer, languishing away in their house? Baxter watched Sean with ears perked up, still whining quietly.
Audrey looked down at him. “Hmm… Are you trying to tell me something, buddy?”
"Dear God," she prayed. "Help."
That day Audrey went to Home Depot and got a little camera monitoring system. It came with three cameras. She put one in the front, one in the back, and just because she had an extra, she put the third up in the kitchen.
When she came home from work on Monday Baxter had peed all over the floor again. He also kept trotting back and forth in the kitchen as if it all reeked to him and he couldn’t find a comfortable place.
She sat down at her table. Baxter stuck close to her, whining from time to time. She pet him as she logged into the app where she could access the videos. She pushed play on the back yard video. The motion sensor was falsely triggered a couple times by the kids playing beside her yard, but then in the video she saw Sean jump over her fence. He held a chocolatey candy bar wrapper up to Baxter. Baxter cautiously licked at it as it fell to the ground. Grace still stared at Baxter through the fence from the other yard. And then Sean beckoned to two of the other little neighborhood kids. They hopped over the fence and made their way to Audrey's back door. They went out of view so Audrey switched to the inside camera. Her eyes got large as she watched them, one by one, crawl through the doggy door. Baxter went inside, and barked a couple of times but mostly ran around nervously.
Audrey watched them sit down at her kitchen table and then she saw Sean pull out a pill bottle. Audrey's eyes got large as she gasped, "Her pain meds." They all took a few and swashed them down with a drink from her sink. Then they left the kitchen to go who knows where in her house. Audrey looked around as if everything in her house was contaminated, and anger welled up inside of her. She raised her eyebrows and looked at Baxter. Besides him, she didn't really have anything of value they could mess up. Then as she thought about Sean's mom, and about her own struggling parents, a deep compassion welled up inside her.
She dropped to her knees next to Baxter and wrapped her arms around him. "You were trying to tell me something. Now I'll know, when you whimper. That's enough. Good boy. I’m so sorry for getting mad and punishing you. This whole time you were trying to tell me something very important, and all I did was be bothered by the inconvenience. I’ll get better at listening to you and we’ll make a good team."
As she knelt there, petting Baxter, an idea came to her. "Maybe they could use a place to go that's not their house." She looked around. Then, with one hand on Baxter's back she picked up her phone and dialed Sean and Grace's dad.
"Hey Steve... yeah... yeah... how are you guys and how's Monica?...I'm so sorry... Hey listen, I'm trying to think how I could help. See, I'm almost out for summer, and I was wondering, do you think your kids would like a place just to get out of the house from time to time?... Yeah that's what I was thinking. Well, you see there was a sweet neighborhood lady who really helped me when I was growing up. And I kind of wanted to pass on the good will. And I noticed Grace seems to like Baxter too ... Yeah that's my new pup ... Yeah! ... Yeah! Okay great! Well, first day of summer break starts next Tuesday. I'll try to kid-proof my house, but ... Okay. Thank you, Steve. You guys take care."
After she hung up, a deep peace settled into her face. She looked down at Baxter and said, "I'll need to have a hard conversation with Sean, But that's what Miss Shari did for me. And it was only then that I realized I could trust her, and listen to her. And that's what saved my life."
"And they're gonna absolutely love you, Big Guy."
—-
It’s easy to get bothered when something in the Bible is vexing, angering, or seemingly contradictory. But the ancient Jewish perspective of the scripture was that problems were purposefully placed in the text to alert the astute reader to look deeper. It drew them in to look for a less apparent message, something that God thought could open up a new world of understanding, if we were only looking close enough. The next time the Bible frustrates you, see it as a call to go deeper, to listen harder, and hear what God really has to tell us through it.
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