an Abomination

On our way to Gavel Club, I shrieked.
"What?" said Asherel.
"I think I just ran over a snake!"
"That's good," said Josh, our friend whom I was giving a ride to Gavel club, "Snakes are an abomination."
"Well, I don't like snakes, but they are one of God's creatures," I said.
"Yes," countered Josh, "One of his creatures that are an abomination."

We had our dog agility class that evening. An owner and her dog came in while Asherel was warming up at the weave poles with Honeybun. The dog was trembling. She came over to me and I pet her. She climbed up, putting her forelegs on my lap and licked my face.
"Vicious huh?" said the owner.
"Does she like other dogs?" I asked. She was a powerful dog, and I knew she would be off leash soon. For some reason, my radar was up. Having worked with Honeybun for that difficult year through her aggression, there was something I saw in the way the dog looked at other dogs that worried me.
"Oh yes," said the owner, "She loves other dogs."

Honeybun was working on the A-frame and tunnel near the other dog. That dog had now gone to the weave poles where her owner snapped off the leash. The way she kept looking at Honeybun made me nervous. I went over to Asherel.
"Keep your distance from that dog," I warned quietly.
Honeybun went over the A-frame and into the tunnel when the other dog burst away from her owner's side. I shrieked, "No!!!!" as the dog at first looked like she was going to go in the other end of the tunnel after Honeybun. Instead, she waited until Honeybun came out and then tackled her, snarling and grabbing her by the throat. Honeybun has shown no aggression towards any dog ever on the agility field. However, when we rescued her, she had been starving, and looked like she had been living in the wild a long while. It had taken a full year of patient, constant work to help her understand she didn't need to fight anymore. All her instincts that had helped her survive in the wild came back. She fought back against the stonger, muscular dog. The dog had her jaws clamped around Honeybun's throat. Asherel froze. I was clear across the field but was running over. The two leaders of the class, Laura and Danielle were there within a split second. Daneille reached in that dangerous maelstrom and pulled the other dog off Honeybun. Laura grabbed Honeybun and the owner finally took hold of her dog. Shaking, I led Honeybun away to the fence, and knelt down with the two leaders, running our hands through her thick fur to see if she had been ripped open anywhere.
"I think her thick fur saved her," I said.
"Are you ok?" Laura asked Asherel, as she continued to part Honeybun's fur around her neck, looking for wounds.
"Yes," said Asherel.
"I'm not," I said, still trembling. All I could think was all our hard work over the past three years with this sweet little dog in eradicating the fear aggression, training her to love agility....was it all ruined in that moment?
'Sometimes it takes a while for any blood to show in a thick haired dog," said Laura, "So keep an eye on her, but she seems ok." She and Danielle instructed Asherel to walk Honeybun around the field, and keep shoveling her goodies.
"Before you leave," said Laura, "We'll have her do the tunnel and see how she responds."
The other dog and owner left. I could not look at them. I didn't trust myself to speak. An incident report was filed, only the second one my friend at the dog club said had ever been needed. The only other one, she told me,was of a dog biting the owner's kid.

Honeybun was prancing watching Asherel with her fistful of goodies. She didn't seem traumatized at all.
"In a way," said Laura, "We were lucky it was Honeybun she went after. If she had gone after the Papillon, she would have killed it."
"Yeh," I said, "Honeybun won't take any guff at least."

Laura straightened the tunnel so that Honeybun wouldn't have to negotiate any curves or stress herself unduly.
"Just run her through the tunnel, and reward her big on the other side," said Laura.
Asherel sent Honey through the tunnel, and met her with a pile of food at the other end.
"Now through the tunnel and over the jump," called Laura.
Other dogs watched nearby. I stood at the tunnel exit, just in case Honeybun now decided other dogs were dangers again in her world. However, I needn't have worried. She did the tunnel and jump like she always does- her full attention on the food Asherel was shoveling in her mouth at the end.
"She'll be fine," said Laura.

As we drove home, I thought of the other dog. Had it attacked before? I told the class leaders that fair-minded as I want to be with all animals, I would never want to see that dog unleashed in any agility field again, and certainly, never near my dog. Laura nodded and assured me she felt the same way. I was glad to see that at the bottom of the incident report, there was a paragraph of potential recourse, including booting the dog from the class. There was also a line about where the owner could seek help for aggression issues. I sincerely hope the owner does so. Had Laura and Danielle not been there, I think the dog may very well have killed Honeybun. I don't like to think of any creature as an abomination, but that eruption of unprovoked violence on a field that has been always a source of joy for us was an abomination.

The book of Daniel foretells of an "abomination of desolation." The Anointed One will be killed, and in the temple, the Abomination will be set up instead until the End. In the book of Revelations, the Abomination of Desolation will drink the blood of God's people, until, finally justice prevails and all knees bow to the name of Jesus.

"Was it Honeybun's fault at all?" asked Asherel quietly, as we drove home. That perhaps broke my heart the most, that my beloved child who had labored so long and so lovingly with the little dog would take any blame for something that was not in any way hers to bear.
"Not at all, not in any way, shape, or form," I said, "The dog attacked Honeybun. All Honey did was defend herself."
"So they won't kick us out of the class?" asked Asherel.
"No," I assured my dear girl.
That is the problem with Abominations. They hurt the innocent, the guiltless.

Daniel 9:26-27

²⁶ After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. ²⁷ He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.

Party animals inTexas

I think I am having more fun than Amy as I am helping her clean and organize after her month in the hospital. I am trying to get her to just sit and watch me and rest. However, I am not sure it is restful for her.

For example, we have had an extended battle over an end table. I am certain that if we moved it 1 foot to the right, the couch would fit flush with the corner of the wall without sticking out an extra few inches as it does now. She won't even let me try and in fact threatens another pancreatic attack should I sneak it in that position while she is not looking.

“Can't we just go have fun?" she whined.
"This is fun," I warned her. At least it is as fun as I get.

The real fun was when I chanced upon the dead baby snake in the corner of the sun room. After I stopped screaming, we huddled together and gazed at the stiffly dried black squiggle.
"That's a worm," said Amy.
"No it's not! That is a snake- a baby snake."
Amy took a picture of the snake for her saintly husband, Jim.
When Jim came home from work, we showed him the snake.
"That's a worm,"he said.
I know everything is bigger in Texas but if that really was a worm, I sure hope I don't come across a Texas snake.

The rest of our cleaning proceeded relatively uneventfully. No more supersized worms or creatures lurked in hidden corners. And we both agreed the sun room looked sunnier after the worm/snake was removed and the day of organizing was coming to an end.

"Tomorrow, we get to do the kitchen!" I told her happily.
"My, you are a party animal!" She didn't exactly say that but I bet she was thinking it.

I have discovered it is much easier to clean and organize someone else's house rather than your own. It is also easier to do as I say and not necessarily as I do. However, I am so inspired by how nice a clean house looks that when I go home, I might even clean my own.

Psalm 18:20 NIV

The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.

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Pausing to Discern

It was flipped upside down, from darting tongue to frantically wiggling tail. I don't know who had flipped it or why, but likely I had interupted a bird about to feast. I could see all its little underbelly scales which are used to propel snakes at an alarmingly fast 13 km/hr. It was orange-ish,  so I thought it might have been a corn snake or (horrors!) a copperhead.

The corn snake is a docile creature, reluctant to bite and very helpful in keeping the rodent population under control. It has an unfortunate similar color/markings to the poisonous copperhead, so my first response on seeing the baby wiggling helplessly upside down was to shriek and find someone to stomp on it. But that moment passed and I paused to watch it. I saw then that the distinctive poison snake triangle head was not there, thus deduced it was a harmless and even useful corn snake.

As I watched, it reminded me of a turtle on its back, flailing helplessly unable to flip over. I thought briefly about helping it, but that idea quickly passed as I remembered how much I abhor snakes. But somehow, my better nature wouldn't allow me to pass it by. It was a baby, afterall. So I stood there, shielding it from whatever predator had flipped it, and cheered it on.

"You can do it, snake!" I encouraged, "Exert yourself!"
The snake wriggled frantically. I knew I would have nightmares, but I continued to watch the mortal struggle. The darker diamond markings would have fooled anyone. Why would a harmless and even in the snake world, docile snake want to look like the murderous Copperhead? How many innocent corn snakes had been stomped on by herpetophobics?

Finally, beginning with the tail, the little underscales began to grab at the ground, and as it slowly found traction, it began to flop over. Before it could totally unroll and escape with the possibility of darting into my shoes and paralyzing me with fear, I hurried on with my interrupted walk. 

But I continued to consider the thought of the benign masquerading as poisonous.  It was the opposite of the snake in the Bible who was death itself masquerading as life. In both cases, I think God was telling me that what was needed was discernment.  Things are not always what they seem. First blush responses are sometimes not based on truth. At times, it is best to overcome aversion, prejudice, fear, preconceptions.... and pause long enough to discern what is dangerous, and what is not.  I am an impulsive creature with an almost pathological desire to do things quickly and early. The older I get, and the more slowly my neurons fire and my muscles respond, I am being forced to slow down and consider more before action. And I am finding more and more that sometimes those Copperheads in life are really Corn snakes.
What looks like death, is really benign, even useful.

Even the disciples were thrown into dismay when their "so-called" Lord was carried from the cross, dead.
All their hopes and dreams of the victorious Messiah gone.  And then, He appeared, resurrected, back from the hellish journey where He had to bear separation from His Father long enough to carry the horrific burden of our sins and pay the penalty we would now not have to. What looked like defeat was the Ultimate Victory. Perfect Justice and Perfect Mercy all rolled up in one act.

I am glad I stopped and watched the baby snake. As it slithered off in one direction, I scurried off in the other, smiling instead of shuddering.

Genesis 50:20
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.