The puppies are cute at 4 weeks old. They were not very good at licking up the pablum at first. They started licking it off my fingers initially and then I would draw them to the plate edge. Once they realized the food was there they got excited and tried to climb into the plate. Well that was hilarious as all legs skidded out on them.
It took them a while to realize that walking across the plate was not a good idea. I had to keep pulling them back.
The mother is from a little town way past Kitchener and the Daddy is from Missouri. I was really happy with their markings and their health, so you can imagine my shock when the vet told me that one of them had a heart murmur. I had done everything possible to make sure the parents were not related.
"What is that?," I asked in my ignorance.
She replied, "It's when the heart valves don't work properly."
"Is it serious?," I probed, looking for more information.
"No, 95% of the time they go away on their own by the time the dog is full grown," she explained.
Hmm. I couldn't get her to try the stethoscope again and she wrote the damning information on the vet report. This was horrible news. Sick puppies don't sell and I was counting on the money to pay off the summer bills because I didn't have a job. Never mind that fact that I was going back to work and didn't have time to look after an additional puppy.
By the time I got into the car to head home I was upset to say the least. I told the Lord, "This is not blessed. You told me I was blessed, so show me what to say or do to change this into a blessing."
Immediately the words of the vet came back to me.... it goes away on it's own 95% of the time. So what I needed was for God to speed up the healing process. She was an otherwise healthy pup and played as hard or harder than the other pups, so I had peace to pray that.
As soon as I got home I got my son and daughter to agree with me that Ruby was supernaturally healed and that she would never have a heart problem again and neither would her future puppies.
Nothing happened that we could see, no physical witness, tears, heat, tingles. Therefore we stood by faith. I wouldn't let anyone confess anything but health and blessing over Ruby.
It was the longest 4 days ever. I had a hard time sleeping at night because so much was hinged on this puppy selling. I disliked not telling the lady about the situation, but the Lord kept telling me to wait whenever I asked him if I could let her know. Ruby was scheduled to fly out on Tuesday so we went to the vet on Monday.
The senior vet examined her and when she had the stethoscope on her, she kept moving it. Laughter and tears hit me as I realized that she couldn't find the murmur. I had brought two business cards from church and was sharing about all the miracles that had happened recently in the meetings.
She didn't want to acknowledge the miracle and said, "Well, hang on a minute." Bringing out a pediatric stethoscope, she again listened to Ruby's heart from many different angles.
Well it's not there," she stated. "It could be that it was intermittent," she offered by way of explanation.
We know better. Ruby got her miracle and I got my testimony and the opportunity to witness to the receptionist and the vet. To God be all the glory!
Incidentally, this is what the vet put on the travel document:
"Innocent Heart Murmur noted on first exam Aug 19/10.
Unable to detect today - maybe intermittent but unlikely pathological."
I emailed Ruby's new owner with the news and a pdf of the Certificate of Health and gave her the option of taking her or I would refund her money. She decided to take her and Ruby flew out via West Jet on Tuesday.
I rejoice in how it worked out. God is on our side and there is a devil/bully on the loose trying to kill, steal and destroy any area of our lives he can, especially our finances. That is his last stronghold because he knows that money makes the world go around.
So the challenge is to renew our minds and then ask the Lord what we can say or do that will change things. He says that all things will work together for our good, to those that love Him and that we should have no fear of bad news, so now we have to dig in to the word and put it to work for us. (Rom. 8:28, Ps. 112:7-10)
Rejoice! Again I say rejoice! The Lord takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.(Psalm 35:27) That's good news in these economic times.
I decree you are blessed with God's wisdom today. May you have His joy in your journey and may you know His love more and more, in Jesus' name I ask. Amen.
