I’ve mentioned my wife’s website before which was inspired by one of our rescue dogs. Among many great offerings, Bunny Roo Beagle also features user-contributed rescue stories from all over the world about dogs who have found loving homes and how they came into their good fortune. The rescue of Sophie will be on the front page. You can find archived rescues here. Her most recent story was contributed by Jodi and Scott and focuses on Sophie, a pup rescued by local Wildlife services and adopted by these wonderful folks. That alone is more than kind enough to warrant a feature story here, but what I found particularly inspirational is the tale that led to Sophie’s adoption.
Before Sophie, there was Sammi - Scott and Jodi’s Brittany spaniel. I will let Jodi tell the story of how Sammi disappeared one cold December day because her touching tale certainly doesn’t require a clumsy re-write by me, but I do want to focus on what happened shortly after Sammi’s disappearance. In the days and weeks following their loss, Jodi and Scott found help in the form of “…a quilting group who drove around searching for Sammi after their Sunday meetings, a pastor who announced our information to his congregation, garbage and utility vehicles that had copies of our flier in their vehicle and the head of the school transportation department who put fliers in all the country school buses.” Even a vet who went out of his way to spread the word about Sammi (and who eventually introduced the family to Jodie) joined in the search.
It never fails to inspire me to find that such community spirit is still alive and well in the world. There are people who will still go out of their way to be kind and help their neighbors and their kindness is rarely motivated by any potential self-gain but is inspired by affection, empathy, faith and sympathy. We should, all of us, keep our eyes open for opportunities to help our neighbors. Don’t just brush by the lost pet fliers hanging on the mailbox. Stop and read. Pay attention to those who surround you and think of ways you can contribute to making their lives a little bit better in whatever way you can.
What follows is Jodi’s story in her own words. And it would not be kind were I to fail warn you that you might want to grab some tissues before you click on continue reading - Continued…
Kindness is a lot like a prankster’s gift… even if it comes in a small box, the prize can be remarkably big or, conversely, a big and brightly wrapped box might not have anything that spectacular inside (unless you’re morbidly fascinated by bubble-wrap). Think about it… if I give $50 to Bill Gates, is he really going to be all that impressed? Sure, to me, it’s a noticeable amount of money, but he would earn more in the time it took him to open the envelope than he’d gain from its contents. On the other hand, a $5 bill handed to a homeless man could make the difference between going hungry and going to bed with a full stomach. With that in mind, here are some relatively small acts that can really make a positive difference in somebody’s life despite the minor effort required.
I’ve been griping about work lately. Why not? It’s been rough. It’s gotten rougher and the outlook is for it to get rougher still. But the truth of the matter is that I have little legitimate cause to complain and it took a visit to the local convenience store yesterday to make me realize what a shameless moron I really am. It was an opportunity lost but a lesson I’ll carry with me that, when you get right down to it, how we live our lives is really all about the perspective we chose to take.