Sometimes life simply does not work out they way we envisioned.  The other night our old dog, Copper, got “skunked”.  It was a funny & terrible event all rolled into one.

I went out after dark to feed the dogs.  Their pens are to the north of the house.  The light from the driveway shines that direction, but does not fully illuminate the pens, to say the least.  I went & got the bowl out of the Tobyn’s pen first.  Tobyn is a rescue dog that we adopted.  He is a horse sized animal, half Great Pyrenees & half Australian Shepherd.  His pen is larger than Copper’s & is closer to the light.  Copper’s pen is smaller & the light begins to fade as you move away from the gate of Tobyn’s pen.

As I bent over to pick up Copper’s food bowl, I smelled a faint aroma de skunk.   Copper trotted into his pen as soon as I picked up his food bowl.  He seldom misses a meal.  I turned around & headed directly to the garage.  I heard a yelp.  I whirled around to see Copper fleeing from Tobyn’s pen.  In the middle of the pen at high alert stood a full sized, angry skunk.

I can only surmise that Copper had trotted out of his pen into Tobyn’s to defend my honor.  What he got was a face full of skunk spray!  He was yelping & running.  He ran right through the garage & out the door leading from the garage to the breezeway.  He began rolling in his bed trying to get the burning, smelling mess out of his eyes.

I quickly shut the garage door as the skunk continued to stand his ground in the middle of the big dog’s pen.  I shut the door leading to the breezeway.  I hurried into the house to look for something to put in Copper’s eyes or any kind of spray that I might have to relieve his pain.  None was found.

As I checked on Copper, I began to realize.  I was RIGHT beside that skunk & didn’t even know it.  He could have sprayed me!

Copper is feeling better now.  Even though he spent the next whole day depressed-not wanting to eat, wanting to be petted…(The petting was out. He stunk too bad.)  I remember once that we had a dog got into a porcupine.  The vet said that usually if “they get quills once, they will get them again”.  She didn’t know why but dogs that bite a porcupine will usually do it again.  I wondered would Copper get skunked again.

Later I was thinking, “Poor Copper”.  He could have followed me, his master, into the garage & barked in that direction.  Then I could have found the skunk.  He could have let me handle it.  Instead he was “big, bad dog”, handling it himself.  He paid the price.

How often I don’t follow the Master?  How often do I not give it to the Master?  How often do I want to handle it myself?  How often do I fail?  How often will I repeat my mistakes? MANY!!!

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” Ephesians 1:18, 19