How We Became Dog Owners - Happy birthday Rahab!

Last year May 10th was a Friday and we had just been in our rental house here in Fort Worth a little over a week. We went to Frontier Forts Days at the Stockyards to learn some Texas history, check out the Stockyards for the first time and take a break from setting up our house. When we pulled into our driveway we saw a German Shepherd dog run across the street and into our yard and hide behind a bush. Glenn warned us to stay in the car to gauge what the dog would do. Seeing that she just looked scared and didn't attack he shooed us inside then, since it was such a hot day, went in to get water for her.

After drinking some water she laid down on our sidewalk and settled in. I guess she felt like she was safe with us. She was bleeding, whether from fights with other dogs or from wounds inflicted by humans we don't know.

We didn't know what to do with her. She had a collar on so we put her picture out on Craigslist as a found pet, contacted the city and the humane society and left her description. No one had reported her missing. We had just moved in and had told the landlord we didn't have any pets though we had discussed with him what we would need to do if that changed. We didn't want to let her into the house.

The kids were smitten with her. Initially they called her Voda because her ears were so funny and she reminded them of Yoda. We took her into the back yard and the kids set up a tent out there thinking they'd sleep with her out there.

In the morning she was still there so we took her to the Humane Society and found out that she wasn't chipped so no luck on finding her owner that way so we had a dog until someone claimed her. We decided to call her "Number Five" since she was playing the role of our 5th child and since we didn't want to give her "a real name" so we didn't get attached. The only problem (besides we didn't have a pet on our lease) was that we were leaving for a 3 week graduation in NY/ family reunion in WY trip on the 12th and we didn't think it was a good idea to take a new to us dog on a several thousand mile road trip. We looked into kennels but not having any idea of her shots history, or any history really, she was not a candidate to stay at any of them. What were we going to do with a dog in this city where we knew no one? God provided once again.

We contacted the German Shepherd Rescue to see if they could help since the Pug Rescue had been a help to my brother in the past with my aunt turned niece Tootsie. The first couple of people we heard back from said they couldn't help and then a lady contacted us asking if she could meet the dog. She told us that if she didn't clash with her dogs she would watch her for us for the whole time we were gone provided that we promised to take her back when we returned from our trip. She told us she already had 3 German Shepherd and 4 Pugs and she really couldn't adopt another dog long term at this time. We agreed to her conditions and drove up to meet her. The meeting went well and Amber even agreed to go and take her to get her first shots. We are so grateful for God's provision of this lover of dogs who was willing to take on one more for 3 weeks for us.

Number Five's first car trip - you can tell the kids don't like her at all, right? haha

She was kind of confused that we were leaving her and stared after us at the gate.

Well, we got 3-4 responses from our Craigslist ad but they were all either looking for a dog that didn't disappear until after we'd posted the dog's picture, didn't meet her description or we could tell they were just spam so we were now dog owners. Since she was actually going to be a part of our family we decided to give her a real name and the kids thought the name Rahab would be appropriate since we rescued her from the streets of Fort Worth just like Rahab was rescued from the destruction of the city of Jericho in Joshua 6 (not to mention that she may have lived a similar lifestyle out there on the streets before she came to live with us).

A quick family pic when we picked her up after our trip.

Lydia, our animal lover, is so excited to have a pet!

I think Lydia liked the kennel more than Rahab did. Rahab didn't do well in the kennel so it went into the garage.

Everyone loves Rahab.

 So, we've had a dog for a year now. There are pluses and minuses but we are so grateful for her. I was especially thankful after our break-in that God had already provided a guard dog for us, we had just taken her with us, not left her at home when the break-in occurred. She still needs a lot of training but she is a good dog and we love her. She is not the dog I would have chosen nor would I have chosen to go out and get a dog but God decided she needed us and we needed her. He knows best.

Finally, I leave you with some pictures from Rahab's first camping adventure to Dinosaur Valley State Park. She did great.

I'm so cool I need to wear shades

Dino tracks are much bigger than dog tracks!

Happy birthday, Rahab, we love you!