Anyone want a puppy?

May 18, 2010 Tuesday

Today we had a great visit with an inactive. Her name is Marion Green. She’s the administrator of a hospital in the city, but she’d taken a couple of weeks off to attend to the birth of some puppies. She lives in a “kennel area.” Evidently, if you have more than two dogs you have to move to one of these areas. As you drive down her street (it’s in a rural area), you see signs at almost every house that you can either buy or board your cat or dog. Marion breeds her dogs as a hobby, but she takes it very seriously. She has a room in her house called the “whelping room” with a special box for the dogs and a cot for her to sleep on so she can be close to the dogs. You couldn’t smell dog even in that room. She took us in to see her newest pups which were 3 weeks old. We aren’t sure what the breed is; she talks very fast. They are about the size of a pit bull but not as muscular. Chloe, the mother dog, was the color of Baka. She’d had 11 puppies; one had died. The rest were all of various colors and markings from white to grey to brown. Some had tails that were tipped with white. Poor Chloe, as soon as she entered the box, they started grabbing on. Of course, there were always two trying to knock the others off so they could nurse. Chloe sat there very patiently for a while; then Marion helped her lie down making sure there weren’t any puppies under her. Marion sat right down in the box and held and loved the puppies. She explained that her pups are in high demand; most are sold before they are even born. She sells all over Australia and even internationally. She has 4 females and one male. Her family is into showing dogs also. Her son is the championship ratings of “handlers” in Australia. With all her dog stuff and her son’s sports stuff, she doesn’t have time for church. She was in the church as a youth and married a member. They had two kids and then she found out her husband was playing around. They divorced, and the 2nd time, she “did it right.” She’s very happily married, but her husband isn’t a member. They love to have missionaries drop by, but don’t want home or visiting teachers. We hope to drop by once in a while just to watch the pups grow and let her know she’s still loved. Her best friend growing up is now the stake president of another stake in Perth, and she turns to him when she has a spiritual need. It’s so frustrating to see these good people who are so busy with the things of the world that they forget the things of the eternal world.