About one year ago around 2:15 am we were suddenly awakened by our alarm system and an unknown sound in our basement. Adrenaline shot me across the room and into the living room. I'm thinking about what should I do. I managed to give my wife a few instructions so that we would be on the same page. The next five minutes seemed like eternity. We had no specific plan for such occasion and so we were all over the place. We managed to get ourselves together while speaking with the alarm company's call center. The police were on the way! I would say that it seemed lightyears before someone showed up. However i think the police were at our house within 10 minutes! They meandered through the house while we stood shivering and crying on the front porch due to the fact that everything had turned out in our favor. We didn't sleep that well the rest of the night but we were thanking God and our lucky stars about our decision to purchase an extremely loud security alarm. I don't even have to tell you about what happened next! No, not another break-in. We went through the next month if I can recall reliving that moment, waking up prematurely in the middle of the night (PTSD). Now I know personally what our soldiers have gone through 1000s of times more than my security alarm. Here comes the good part of this story. My wife started bringing up the four-legged friend, man's best friend. Honey we must get a dog and one very soon. I will admit my reluctance because I didn't want a dog! Too much work and well I never had a dog. Last February give or take two weeks, the dog story came up; well you know, she had been looking at doggie websites since that break-in. I wandered through three websites where we came upon a dog that looked us both in the face. I sized him up, he looked like he had a bark and reminded me of a setter . I saw the spark in my wife's eye when she noticed that affirmative look on my face. She mentioned to me to read his story, I did, he had been left at an abandoned farm somewhere in West Virginia, and to top it off he had found a home at a kill shelter , if you know what i mean, his days were numbered!It said that he would be put down by the end of the week. We emailed this rescue group right away called "Homeward Trails"- surprisingly enough, this guy called us back later that evening. He gave us the dog owner talk. We were right away set up for an appointment to get the lowdown on the dog and about who we were. I'm thinking all the time ,we're getting a dog, to live in the house, and all the other things that dogs do. His name in the beginning was "Droopy." That name ended the first week. my wife asked if I could think of a name for our new friend. I pondered for about thirty minutes and yelled out to her, he ought to be lucky we chose him over all the other dogs we looked at that evening on the doggie sites. Lucky looked mean in the picture because he was hungry, tired, lonely, and forgotten. Some family or person had left him for dead! He comes with a whole batch of trauma. He barks occasionally and is content at being a new addition to our family. It has been a year now since rescuing Lucky. This week is Luckydog's Birthday ,now and forevermore! I guess someone was looking out for Lucky, Barbara,and I that night!
Reading Resource
http://www.homewardtrails.org/ great organization/ read about how you can support this mission!
http://www.animalworldnetwork.com/bsurpetstat.html grueling statistics regarding abandoned dogs and cats and other animals.
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/index.shtml find out more about Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder and Treatment
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