[Dailydrool] A MUST READ! MIRACLES HAPPEN!

[Kathi Lockhart]

I don’t know about all of you but I have always believed that miracles
happen. However, they happen to other people, in other places, not to me.
Sunday, a miracle occurred and I was there. The story of this miracle may be
a little long but I ask that you bear with me and read it to the end. It
will have you believing in miracles, too.

A few weeks ago, I made the difficult decision to re-home one of the members
of the Little House of Hounds. Most of you that work in rescue or that
foster understand that, sometimes, a basset comes into your life that has
difficulty adjusting to living within a pack. That was Belle. She was gentle
and loving as long as she received my undivided attention but the LHOH has a
pack of 10 and, I alone, could not provide what she needed and still care
for the others. I wanted to find her a perfect home where she would treated
like a queen and, thankfully, I found just that with James Bankston. I knew
James would be a devoted slave and give Belle all the love and attention she
so deserves. But, there was one small problem. I live in Ohio and James
lives in Texas.

I decided that I really wanted to take Belle to James, myself. Marty Jacobs
volunteered to come to the LHOH from Maryland and join me in the trip. On
Tuesday (1/26), we set off on our journey to the Lone Star State. The first
leg of the trip was a 9-hour drive to Kentucky where we met Claudia O’Neil,
Winston, Sadie, and Sir Henry the Bloodhound. Wednesday was a 10-hour drive
to Ft. Worth to meet Cathi Cox and the Waterway Gang. Thursday we made the
trek to Austin for the heartwarming first meeting between Belle and James.
After Belle was settled, we headed back to Cathi’s in Ft Worth. Our plan was
to head back bright and early Friday morning. The weather had different
ideas. All routes back to Ohio were blocked by the ice and snow that
blanketed the middle of the country. We had to delay our return trip.

After watching the weather channel and periodically checking road conditions
on the internet, I decided that the best thing to do was to change our
route. Instead of heading east through Arkansas and Tennessee, we would go
north through Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. I figured by
Saturday morning, those states would have had time to clear the interstates
and that it would make a safer route than heading toward Nashville where the
snow and ice were still falling.

Saturday morning, we said our goodbyes to the Waterway Gang and headed
north. Surprisingly, the roads weren’t that bad and after about 8 hours, we
stopped for the night in Springfield, Missouri. Sunday, we were on our way
again, hoping to make it to Indianapolis.

The trip through Missouri was uneventful. We crossed the Mississippi River
and headed into Illinois. At Exit 45, we got off the interstate to get gas
and make a pit stop. Back on the interstate we go, ease into traffic, and
soon are going the posted 70 mph. That’s when it happened. I turned to Marty
and said, “I swear to God that I just saw a basset hound running down the
side of the interstate!” Marty looked at me like she thought I had lost my
mind but we both knew we had to go back and look.

Since there was too much traffic to pull over, we had to go on to the next
exit in order to turn around. We took Exit 52, had to drive all the way back
to Exit 45, turned back around and headed east again. I know we both had our
hearts in our throat, wondering if we would find the dog, if it would still
be on the side of the road, or had it ventured onto the highway and been
hurt or killed. We had just about given up when we spotted her. Sure enough,
here was a basset hound walking wearily in the grassy area beside the
interstate with hundreds of cars and trucks zipping past at 70+ mph.

I pulled off the highway about 100 yards from where she was. I grabbed a
leash from the van. Marty handed me a sugar cookie (the only food we had)
and I began to walk slowly toward her. As I was walking, traffic continued
to speed past, the wind from the tractor trailers almost rocking me. All I
kept thinking was, “Please don’t let me scare her and make her run toward
the road!” When I was about 20 yards away from her, she turned and looked at
me. I simply said, “Hi, Beautiful”.

Her tail began to wag and we started to walk toward each other. When she got
closer, I knelt down on the ground and she came right to me. She allowed me
to pet her, give her ear scritches, and place the leash over her head. Her
tail never stopped wagging. I held out the cookie and she, ever so gently,
took it in her mouth. Even though I knew this baby was starving, her ribs,
spine, and hip bones showing prominently, she carried that cookie in her
mouth as we walked toward the van. With about 10 feet to go, she stopped and
ate it hungrily.

We moved on to the van where Marty was met with tail wags. She allowed me to
lift her into the van, put a collar on her, and clip her leash. After
another day and a half of travel and a night at the vet, she is safe and
sound as the newest member of The Little House of Hounds.

So, Drool family, let me introduce to you Amazing Grace (Gracie, for short).
I named her that because it was only by the Grace of God that all of these
events transpired (the trip to Texas, the snow, the delay, and the change of
route) and that we ended up on that stretch of I-70 at the exact same time.
Miracles do happen. I know. It happened to me!
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