{"id":20098,"date":"2026-03-11T08:47:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T08:47:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/opening-my-heart-to-our-new-dog\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:09:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:09:13","slug":"opening-my-heart-to-our-new-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/positive-living\/friends-and-family\/pets\/dogs\/opening-my-heart-to-our-new-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening My Heart to Our New Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Woof! I jumped back. I\u2019d never heard such a bark. The huge brown Lab pressed himself against the wire caging, wagging his tail, his tongue lolling from his mouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsn\u2019t he great?\u201d my husband, Joe, asked, shouting over the dog.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s awfully big,\u201d I said. \u201cAnd loud.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I think he\u2019s perfect,\u201d Joe said. \u201cI really miss having a dog around.\u201d<\/p>\n

No argument from me. Our beloved beagle, Bernadette (Ben for short), had died of cancer 10 months earlier. With her sweet nature, Ben had made her way into our hearts and stayed there for 13 years. I\u2019d actually gotten Ben as a Christmas present for Joe. She was supposed to be his dog. But I was home with her most of the time when she was a puppy. She became my best furry friend. We\u2019d walked a path through the woods in every season, rain or shine, side by side. I still couldn\u2019t bear to think of that day we\u2019d taken her to the vet when her suffering had become too much.<\/p>\n

Joe worked maintenance at the airport and the county dog pound was on the same property. Lately he\u2019d been bugging me to come look at the dogs. I\u2019d hedged, not sure if I was ready. If I\u2019d ever be ready. But I thought maybe God would lead us to another beagle\u2014compact, cute, with a pleasant personality. Another Ben. And that suddenly I\u2019d be ready to welcome another dog into our lives. The hole that Ben left behind would be filled.<\/p>\n

There were no Bens. Only this overgrown, overexcited Lab.<\/p>\n

Woof! Woof! Woof!<\/em><\/p>\n

Joe reached through the wire and patted his big head. \u201cSure is a nice-looking fellow. I bet he\u2019s a full-breed chocolate Lab. Looks a lot like Buck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buck, his boyhood Lab. I\u2019d heard many a story of their adventures. Like the time Buck devoured the entire Sunday roast right off the dining room table when no one was looking. How he yanked the blankets off Joe every morning to wake him up. How he\u2019d grab clean laundry off the line and roll around with it in the garden.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell?\u201d Joe asked, like an excited kid.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is really<\/em> large,\u201d was all I could say. \u201cAnd loud.<\/em>\u201d I\u2019m not even sure Joe could hear me. His eyes were pleading. So were the spectacular copper-colored eyes of the giant Lab. As if they were ganging up on me. How could I say no?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to love him! We\u2019ll call him Sam,\u201d Joe said, filling out the paperwork. I had a feeling the shelter was happy to let him go.<\/p>\n

His second day with us, Sam slipped his collar and took off. He raced across the field next to our house and disappeared. We drove around calling his name until we found him charging down the highway, where he almost got run over by a snowplow. Then we chased him through the woods until he finally decided it was time to come home. He hopped into the cab of our truck, collapsed on my lap and pressed his wet, sloppy muzzle against my neck.<\/p>\n

Ben had never run away. She liked nothing better than to walk at my side. She came when she was called. Not Sam! He chased everything that could run or fly, usually with me desperately hanging on to the end of the leash.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom now on, you\u2019ll have to walk him,\u201d I snapped at Joe one day after Sam had yanked me to the ground yet again. \u201cHe\u2019s too much dog for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just needs to get used to us is all,\u201d Joe said. He gave Sam a rub behind the ears. How could he have gotten over Ben so easily?<\/p>\n

I tried praying for Sam to get used to us, not to run away anymore, to behave. Sam\u2014or maybe God\u2014wasn\u2019t listening, though. Sam was a canine escape artist. He figured out how to push against the latch on the back door to open it and would take off, ignoring our calls, returning only when he was good and ready. No wonder he\u2019d ended up in the pound!<\/p>\n

It was all a game to Sam.<\/p>\n

Until one snowy day, about eight months after we got him, when Sam took off in the apple orchard by our house . . . and didn\u2019t come back.<\/p>\n

\u201cSam!\u201d I yelled. Nothing. \u201cSammy!\u201d I wandered the orchard, clapping my hands in the cold air. Silence. For a split second I saw him. He looked right at me. \u201cSammy boy!\u201d<\/p>\n

But just like that he was out of sight. My frustration mounted as I slogged through the snow back to the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid he come home?\u201d Joe asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d I said, sighing. \u201cHe saw me, though, and I swear, Joe, he laughed at me and ran.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRelax. He\u2019ll come back,\u201d Joe said. \u201cHe always does.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t so sure. I thought about Sam in the pound. His eyes pleading with me from his cage. What if he got picked up again? The temperature was dropping. \u201cI\u2019m going to get in the car and look for him,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

Lord, why doesn\u2019t Sam want to be here with us the way Ben did?<\/em> I thought, driving around. I caught a glimpse of brown fur flashing across the road into the woods. I jumped out of the car and stood in the middle of the road, calling Sam\u2019s name. He either didn\u2019t hear me or didn\u2019t care. I couldn\u2019t live like this. Not after having a perfect dog like Ben.<\/p>\n

I drove home, cold and discouraged. Not discouraged. Defeated. By a dog.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeave the back door open,\u201d Joe suggested from his chair by the woodstove. \u201cSooner or later, he\u2019ll get hungry and tired and come back. He always does.\u201d<\/p>\n

How can Joe be so nonchalant?<\/em> I wondered. Doesn\u2019t he care?<\/em><\/p>\n

I sat down in a chair next to him and checked my cell phone to distract myself. I swiped the screen and there she was. Sweet Ben. One of my most treasured photos of her. It was as if she were looking right into my heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll never love another dog the way I loved Ben,\u201d I said to Joe.<\/p>\n

He reached for my hand. \u201cMonica, you don\u2019t have to. There will never be another Ben. But there will be other dogs for you to love.\u201d Other dogs . . . like Sam. Why was I so worried about him if I didn\u2019t care? Was it fair to compare him to my perfect Ben?<\/p>\n

To be honest, Ben was not always perfect. We\u2019d had to newspaper the entire kitchen floor when Ben was a puppy, because if there was one square inch that wasn\u2019t covered, she\u2019d find it and pee there. We went through so many papers we were asking friends for theirs! Sometimes she\u2019d cry at night until we let her get in bed with us. And she always had to be the center of my attention. Ben was wonderful, but she wasn\u2019t perfect. God doesn\u2019t make perfect dogs any more than he makes perfect people. We have to learn and love and grow. To move on.<\/p>\n

I put on a fresh pot of coffee.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, there was a rustling at the back door. I tiptoed closer. Sam! He tilted his head, staring at me with those copper eyes: \u201cShould I come in or go back outside?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Sam!\u201d I said, kneeling down and holding out my arms. \u201cCome inside, buddy. Come in and get warm.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wiggled into my grasp, almost knocking me over.<\/p>\n

That night I didn\u2019t just let Sam inside the house. I let him inside my heart, where he\u2019s been ever since. Because God always has another dog for you to love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Woof! I jumped back. I\u2019d never heard such a bark. The huge brown Lab pressed himself against the wire caging, wagging his tail, his tongue lolling from his mouth. \u201cIsn\u2019t he great?\u201d my husband, Joe, asked, shouting over the dog. \u201cHe\u2019s awfully big,\u201d I said. \u201cAnd loud.\u201d \u201cWell, I think he\u2019s perfect,\u201d Joe said. \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":28720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[201],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[1336],"class_list":["post-20098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dogs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOpening My Heart to Our New Dog - Guideposts Articles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Opening My Heart to Our New Dog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Woof! 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