Do you believe in "Divine Intervention"?

Okay. This is somewhat unbelievable, but I swear to you it's true.

Quite a few of you read my last post about putting my dog Max down.

Let me back-track a bit. Max was a barker. Great Pyrenees are renowned for this trait, but Max was a barking prodigy. We had already spent over $1000 just trying to give the neighbors some measure of peace. Training, spray collars, shock collars, de-vocalization (which didn't work). Actually this past weekend I'd just almost completed a $700 privacy fence on the north side of our back yard so Max wouldn't see them. That was a last-ditch effort and now I have a 6 foot privacy fence that we hate and don't need.

Let's touch on the neighbors. They are and older couple. They are around 70 and they are what I would call a good Christian couple. They are the best neighbors I've ever had. We help each other and trust each other with no questions. One odd thing, though. The guy has no sense of smell. That's a bit weird, but it's cool I suppose.

Now to the shock collars. At first it was Max and Roxy who drove my neighbors insane. We ordered a set of Sport Dog training collars, put them on the dogs and started training. After they knew why they were getting hit I gave the remote to my neighbor. He used it very rarely - only on the days that they were just driving them nuts. Roxy learned quickly and stopped. Max, on the other hand, never would stop.

Okay. Fast forward to this afternoon. I thought I would go over and get the remote since they no longer needed it. I walked through the garage and thought I got a whiff of something strange. I knocked on the door and my neighbor answered and invited me in.

As soon as I stepped inside I smelled a strong gas smell. My neighbor's wife said she didn't smell anything, so I called my wife over to confirm what I was sure of. As soon as she walked in, she said "Oh my God! I smell gas." My neighbor called the emergency number for the gas company and they came out and found a gas leak in their house. The guy said that it had been building up slowly which was why my neighbor's wife hadn't noticed it, and of course, my neighbor couldn't smell it.

It didn't dawn on me until about 20 minutes ago that had everything that's gone wrong the past few months not happened, and had we not had Max put down just day before yesterday, I wouldn't have gone over there this afternoon. According to the gas company rep, had they gone to bed tonight as things stood it was most likely they would have either died of asphyxiation or in an explosion, since the pilot light on their gas log fireplace was lit.

Now on to me. I don't consider myself a religious person any longer. I used to be, though. I used to be a Sunday school teacher, a "bus captain" and a song leader/worship director all at the same time. Not any longer, though. I've either lost my faith or thrown it away. I'm not sure which, but I can tell you that at this point in my life I have trouble believing in divine intervention. Maybe it was just pure, dumb luck. Maybe it was just coincidence. Still, it's pretty weird though.

What do you think? I think that it's just coincidence because it seems to me that if God were going to have me go over there this afternoon, he could have just as easily had something malfunction at my house that required a large torx bit. I don't have a good torx bit set but my neighbor does. I'd have gone over just the same and none of this crap would have had to happen.

My neighbors thanked me and told me that if it wasn't for me they would have "woke up dead". I told them that I didn't save their lives. Max did.

 

You may be right, Steve. I just called my brother, who is a preacher and told him about this. My brother and I don't pull any punches. Know what he said? He told me "That just goes to prove one thing: God will even use a heathen to do his will."

I'd punch him if he weren't in Kentucky. (And if he weren't 6' 7" tall weighing around 300 pounds.) :D

 

I couldn't agree more. They are truly good people and I'd do anything for them.

 

You know, Fitz, you make some really good points sometimes. Yeah, I know that he didn't make me put Max down. That last full paragraph was intended to be funny. Still, the perfect timing in all of this is pretty astounding.

My brother (the preacher) actually asked me if he could use this in one of his sermons. It's pretty weird if you ask me. I've been preached "to" and I've been preached "at", but I've never been preached "about".

 

Dude, you have no idea.

Every time I hear a bark or a growl I go running to the source expecting the worst.

My daughter is driving up on Friday. She and my wife, who is doing much better now, will drive the two labs to Cheyenne, WY to finally turn them over to my daughter-in-law. This is, of course, provided no one gets sick.

 

You said that. I didn't. :D

 

I suppose that's possible, Mark.

I'm not big on taking credit for myself. Like I said, I'd rather give the credit to my dog. If he hadn't been a barking machine they wouldn't have had that remote and I would have had no reason to go over there today. Somehow it makes me feel better to think that in a way Max repaid them for the temporary inconvenience he caused in their lives.

You know, I'm surprised I haven't heard from Tony on this one. His wife must have pulled his liberty card tonight.