Dealing with Dog Discouragement

When Dan and I first moved to Florida I wanted to get a dog and for a whole list of reasons it just wasn’t the right time. Over the last few months we’ve been reconsidering this. Our desire for a small dog intensified over two weeks ago. Dan and Trinity had been somewhere and they saw a puppy for $30 that had already had all of its shots and was spayed/neutered. Had I have been with them that day we’d had ended up with that dog. Dan didn’t get it because he thought I’d be upset. By the time we went back for it, someone else had already taken in. After we thought about it we realized it was a good thing we didn’t because that dog in particular would have been bigger than we wanted. We realized we need a small dog that we can travel with. My family is going through a lot of transition these days, and it’s like I know we all would really enjoy having a new member of our family. Then last week I had a friend of ours offered us a 1 year old yorkie. The dog was darling but we could tell this just wasn’t our dog. We helped find that dog a home somewhere else. Truthfully we want a dog a lot younger. To be specific we’ve decided on an 8-12 week old (though I’d be okay with a tad older) small carry-on sized dog. We don’t want a yapper, we’d prefer a mutt, no ugly dogs, would love to have at least had a vet look at it because we don’t want to inherit issues, and while I get rehoming fees I do not want to pay a fortune for it (not that we’ve gotten specific or anything).

Since that time we scoured the internet, and came across a rescue dog that we thought was perfect for us. She was a chihuahua/daushund/we think pug mix. My kids fell in love with her and already had her renamed. After two days of waiting for the rescue people to get their act together they turned us down for her adoption. Their reasoning was without really talking to us and really unmerited. I was more upset they hadn’t communicated there concerns with us as to the age of our children and where the dog would stay when we weren’t here before they chose to turn us down. I was mad they waited two days to tell us this, and in the meantime I then had two very disappointed kids who already had it renamed.

I’ve spent days scouring the humane societies, craigslist, and petfinder.com Yesterday we traveled for a 3hr round trip to go look at a dog off Craigslist. When my youngest found out where we were going she said to Dan and I, “I feel so shaky inside!” We then got there we found out that the lady had sold it right before we showed up. We were all a little discouraged.

I think that many people deal with situations in life like we’ve been dealing with as to our family dog decision. It took us so long to make the choice that we wanted a small dog, that when we did we just assumed it would be an easy thing. We realize the discouragement that we face, and we see the toll it takes on the people around us. It makes us want to quit trying, and quit looking for the things that we want. After dealing with the snarky rescue people it makes me not sure I want to even look at rescue dogs (I will just not that rescue place.)

Sometimes in life you just have to come to the resolve that if it’s important to you then it’s worth fighting for, you have to keep pressing on despite discouragement. (Philippians 3:14) You have to keep pressing forward.

Life can be a journey filled with unexpected challenges, discouragements, and delays. But the good news is that it’s also filled with surprises, rewards, and encouragements. If you never open yourself up to anything that disappoints you then you’ll never really experience life. God didn’t create you to always be depressed. He didn’t give you the gift of life so that you always would be down in the dumps. But he gave it to you as a gift to enjoy. Face your challenges and hurdle over them. Just as we will as a family. I know that puppy is out there for us somewhere when it’s the right time, and the right dog. :-)

Remember He has awesome plans for your life. Get excited!