On Track

“What are those little yappy dogs good for anyways?” I remembered blurting out.

I was thinking back over the last week and wondering what I should write about this week. On Friday evening our small group had gotten together for dinner and then a Bible study/discussion on several passages that read, “this calls for the endurance of the saints”.  How do we endure and keep walking the walk and trusting in God when the times are tough?  I think we all agreed that it's important to have a personal relationship with God. Reading the Bible, praying, worshiping, listening to good music and podcasts, etc. All of those things help us do that. For me, I believe that God has a specific purpose for each of us and trying to figure out what that is and then walking in it keeps us walking with him too. But what if you don't know what that purpose is? Or what about verses that tell us to live out a quiet and simple life? Maybe that's a purpose in itself.

Back to my question about why someone would want a yappy dog anyways. Since almost everyone in our small group has and loves dogs, it wasn't long into the evening until the conversation switched to talking about dogs.

Some of the guys have hunting dogs that are trained for a specific thing such as running rabbits or coyotes or coons. For some of the guys, as long as there's a good chase happening and the hounds are baying and the chase is on, that's really what matters and brings joy to them. 

The other people's dogs in the group, well they’re just there because everyone loves them. Megan was talking about her Yorkie. Apparently it's really cute, but old and fragile. Sometimes she'll give it a bath and the poor little thing will be so exhausted from the bath that he'll sleep the rest of the day. And you can just tell that she just loves that little dog by the way she says, “He's so adorable!!!”

About then is when I jokingly said, “what do people have those little yappy dogs for anyways.”

And that's when someone else said, “probably the same reason that you have Koda.”

And they're probably right. 

I've told this story before, about why we got Koda, but for those that haven't heard it, here goes. We had a beagle named Daisy that was pretty much a part of the family. We had gotten her as a pup when Blake was a baby. They grew up together and shared ice cream cones and all kinds of things that only a boy and his dog could share. We weren't vigilant enough with her diet and a common theme with fat beagles is sugar diabetes. By the time she was seven she was diagnosed with diabetes. It was sad to see her lose her eyesight and then slowly deteriorate to the  point where she could barely walk.

I had gotten Daisy with the hope that she would help to track down and find deer that had been shot, and on several occasions she did just that. And she loved it! And I loved watching her work. Her last track happened about a week before we lost her. Blake had shot his first buck with a crossbow. The shot wasn't the best and the blood trail was basically non-existent. We tried to search for a while but with no luck. Around nine o'clock I took Blake home so he could get to bed and I went back out and looked some more. How I wished Daisy was healthy. It was getting late and since I was at a loss in my search, I decided to carry Daisy to the last spot of blood and maybe she could at least point me in the right direction. When I set her down her tail began to wag and she sniffed and slowly made her way down the trail. I had to lift her across logs and carry her through thick brambles,  but when I would set her down her tail would wag and off she would go. In less than a half an hour she found the buck. I was happy and she was happy. And when I woke Blake at midnight, well he was elated to say the least.

Even though the goodbye a week or so later was a rough one, it didn't take long for us to realize that we wanted another dog. And that's when we got Koda, a supposed  mix of Beagle and Rottweiler. Since she was part beagle, I was sure that she would track. After a year or two of hoping and laying down fake blood trails and trying to train her we figured out that she can barely smell a piece of pepperoni, let alone track something. And so as far as a tracking dog goes, she turned out to be a dud. We even had taken her along to help track on several occasions, but I’m pretty certain that she didn't actually help us. But the whole family loves her. The UPS man loves her. Everyone that comes to our house loves her. I'm not sure why. I can think of lots of reasons that we shouldn't like her. She got into our bait on a fishing campout when she was just a pup,and got a hook in her lip. She killed our chickens. Been quilled by porcupines twice. Sprayed by a skunk more than once. In a fight with a boar coon under the porch which had our house smelling worse than a skunk. Killed a cat. Poops in the yard everywhere constantly and sheds hair all over the floor. And if I'm not up at 4:30 AM making coffee and letting her in, she starts whining at the door.  But it's okay. We love her and we just like having her around. It's fun to see her rip and tear around the yard. We go on hikes with her. It's neat to see her sleeping on the floor and hear her  little yaps as she dreams about who knows what. We all love her and wouldn't trade her for the best hunting dog in the world.

As I started thinking about the dogs and thinking about purpose and thinking about how we can stay close to God when things start to get rough, it started to make sense. For all of us, it's important that we have a personal relationship with Jesus. Beyond that, what we're doing with our lives probably looks different for each of us, but whatever it is, we're probably wanting to bring joy to our Master. For some of us that means just hanging out and enjoying life and living it out the best that we know how. For others, there's a specific thing that we were made for, a passion and a trail we were meant to run. And we can use that passion to serve God or to serve ourselves, but it's up to us.

For me writing is one of those things. I've written several articles for Fur-Fish-Game and those come with guidance, critique and a paycheck. But what I really like to write is stories from my own personal life that might benefit someone. The pay is simply feeling good about what you wrote and hoping God can use it to bless someone. I guess you could say that I'd rather help a hunter become a better man than to help a man become a better hunter.

There's something common to both writing and a hound that has the passion for hunting. For one, you're always looking for a track, something to write about. And then, once you find it, you have to get on it and keep pushing yourself til it's finished. Working out a track takes time. You never know where it will end up, but if you keep at it, one step at a time, you'll figure it out.

So last evening I started writing down my thoughts, trying to figure out what to write. And somehow I fell onto the track of comparing a dog and his master to me and mine. And now that I have this tidbit written, I feel like I'm almost at the end of the trail. It's always a good feeling, wrapping up an article and wondering what the Master will do with it. But what’s even better is feeling like I have a purpose and that I will get to run again. Yep, for me there's nothing better than hearing that tailgate drop and my Master's voice saying, “go get em boy.”

I'm pretty sure that I was made to run.