 Barked: Sun Oct 30, '11 7:48am PST |
 | |  | | “ Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. . . . ”
Romans 12:6 (RSV)
Long ago we’d been told that if Nellie, our black Labrador retriever who suffered from chronic pancreatitis and was an incorrigible food thief to boot, absconded with one more piece of chocolate, it might well be her last. This evening as we’d washed up the dinner dishes, Nellie began to pace the kitchen in wide circles, panting and eyeing us wildly.
We wondered what was wrong until we found an empty, chewed-up box on the back porch. It had once contained a large selection of gourmet brownies. Now, all that was left were tiny shreds of foil and cellophane.
It was the weekend and our veterinarian’s office was closed, so I picked up the phone and dialed my sister Katrina, a large-animal vet. Through halting tears, I explained what had happened. “You must get Nellie to the animal emergency hospital now, ” she said.
I kept the cell phone and Katrina’s reassuring voice to my ear all through the emergency room evaluation. As the hospital veterinarian told us what could be done, Katrina explained what it all meant. From three hundred miles away, she gave me questions to ask the vet, translated the answers and helped us decide what to do.
Nellie was led away, and for a long hour we could hear her yelping from behind closed doors. Finally the doctor returned to tell us that Nellie would be fine in another twenty-four hours. She also told me that my sister was a remarkable vet.
I called Katrina the next day to thank her for what she had been for me through that trying time. “You’re welcome,” she said, “but it was easy. That’s what I do.”
Dear Lord, You’ve given all of us our own talents and abilities, and when we share them, we do for each other what we were meant to do.
By Anne Adriance |  |  | |  |
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