Do So Anyway

This past month has been a whirlwind; so much so I have neglected one of my recently developed favorite hobbies- this blog. I should say that I’ve been so busy that I haven’t even thought about it, but that would be a lie. I have thought about writing many posts this past month, but just haven’t had the time to do it. Oops, there I go with the lying again. Okay, I haven’t been posting because, like not wanting to say something out loud in fear that it makes it too real, I have not wanted to put my all of my confused thoughts and feelings down in writing. Life in general is wonderful, and I’m thankful every day for it; I’ve just been faced with making many decisions recently, big and small, that have me excited, stressed, hopeful, and more all at once. But I’ve decided to quit avoiding organizing my thoughts and “rejoin the blog world,” as my sister Katy put it.

For now, however, I’ll let the majority of my most jumbled thoughts be, and just share something I’ve learned recently: Good Samaritans still exist.

On the 4^th of July night around 10:30, Shane and I’s one year old puppy, Brooksie, broke her collar and ran off. I’ll skip the chaos that was the next 20 minutes (we got her back in one piece and she’s fine thankfully), but I want to talk about the driver of a white SUV. A young man, probably around age 30, was driving down our street right as Brooksie broke free and took off. The driver luckily saw Shane and I running and screaming and waving our hands right before she ran in front of him. When he stopped he got out and tried to call her to him, but a firework went off and she was gone again. As Shane and I split up our routes, I sprinted panicked to the corner of our street wondering which way she went (she’s a black, fast, dog and the thick haze of smoke from all the fireworks, not to mention the constant noise, was the least ideal of situations to lose a black, fast, dog in).

The young man, having done a U-turn to follow us, pulled up and shouted, “Do you want my car? You can take it.” I told him I’d stay on foot and then he volunteered to drive up and down the street while I ran. I saw him take off searching for her, and when I turned to run down another street, he turned around again and drove down to where Shane was running. Later I found out he shouted to Shane, again asking, “Do you want my car?” Shane stayed on foot too, and the driver told him he’d keep searching around the block. Running barefoot by dozens of people lighting fountains and caterpillars in their driveways, knowing that not only Shane was looking for Brooksie, but that someone else was out searching too made me a tiny bit hopeful in what seemed like a hopeless situation.

Shane finally found our puppy who had already ran past our yard where it all started, and we quickly took her inside away from the fireworks that had her so terrified. A couple times we checked outside to see if the SUV was driving by so we could tell the young man we found her, but we never saw the good Samaritan again. The good Samaritan who offered two complete strangers his car, gave me comfort in his looking, and spent at least 20 minutes of his 4^th of July night driving around to find a dog. We will never be able to thank him; if I ever could I would not only thank him for trying so hard to help us, but for reminding me that some people still do the right thing, even when unexpected, or scary, or when it would be easier to just not get involved. It was a great example of what kindness is truly about- you may not be acknowledged or given thanks for helping someone out, but you should always do so anyway.