Title

This Is How I Know God Exists

Our Dogs ran away from home. The first time in 7 years that this has happened. It isn't important why it happened or whom to blame, because they were still not home.

It was 9:30 at night when we first realized that our quiet back yard was quiet for a reason. The open gate was our second clue that something was amiss. Our two dogs, Litzar (meaning prince) and Beela (meaning white) were gone. Sure we ran around the neighborhood calling for Litzar (as calling for Beela is useless because she is deaf). Running around the neighborhood, Driving around the neighborhood, in ever increasing concentric circles. At first together, then separate. We can cover more ground that way. Cell phone chatter back and forth reassuring ourselves. The whole time I was fearing to see them lying on the road, or a ditch. Praying that they would be ok.

Around 11:30 we got our first prayer answered. I clearly heard a voice in my head tell me to go home. I resisted, because I wanted to find the dogs, but gave in and went.

Beela (yes the deaf one) was sitting in our front yard. Waiting. Just waiting. She was as excited to see me as I was confused to see her. 1 down 1 to go. But she was deaf. Why did the deaf one come home and the one who can hear not come home? On one hand we were happy on the other...fear and uncertainty. That's when I broke down. You see Beela takes to me, and Litzar takes to my wife. I was happy to see Beela but deep down I was afraid of Litzar being hurt or worse. I was by myself, but as I was learning, I wasn't alone. I continued praying. We continued searching.

An idea struck me....wait maybe if I put a leash on the dog and we walked around the neighborhood she would show me where she went and we would find her brother. An hour and a half later....I was cold and tired but still no success, well, we stayed up till 1:30 looking for him (me walking around with Beela, my wife driving around in the car).

It was now 1:30, Thursday night. Well really Friday morning. My wife and I both are now tired, cranky, cold. Realizing that we need to get some sleep so that we can go to work the next day.

We needed help, we needed to make signs and get the neighborhood involved. So we made signs (42 of them). My wife got on the computer and used a clip art picture of a boxer (modified to include the non-cropped ears, etc...), that's when she broke down. Well we had the signs then we started posting them around the neighborhood till 4 am....

As soon as we started putting up the first white lost dog sign, I actually chastised myself for not thinking of using a different color paper. White is going to get lost, we always see white signs around the neighborhood for yard sales, etc.... I couldn't believe how stupid I was. That moment, THAT VERY MOMENT. I heard a voice, more like a feeling, saying that it was ok. Just keep on going. I felt very calm, serene, I couldn't explain it but I said ok lets go.

When we had put up all 42 signs.....we went to bed. It was 4:30 am. Beela couldn't sleep, we were exhausted but could barely sleep....

Next morning we get a call from a Lady who says she saw our signs and has seen our dog ... apparently when she walked by our house he started to follow her and she couldn't get him to stop, so she figured he had a purpose, she walked around the whole neighborhood but at some point Litzar stopped following her ... then we get another phone call from a lady who says she has our dog ... she took him in around 11:00 at night (which is why we couldn't find him). She lived on the only corner where we put up 4 signs ... but no that is not the end of the story.

The family that picked up Litzar had kids so the dog had a good time, he didn't sleep much either (she said he paced all night), and of course he was happy to see us and when we brought him home Beela and Litzar were so happy to see each other.

When we went to pick up the signs we put up the night before we noticed something ...

Under every one of our signs, UNDER EVERY ONE OF THEM, someone had put up the most obnoxious color garage sale signs. Between 4 am and 6:30 am someone had put up flourescent pink garage sale signs.....so obnoxious was this colour you couldn't help but notice it..........and then of course you would notice our sign that had a clip art picture of our boxer.

When we got home, I called the number on the sign of the obnoxious garage sale signs to thank her. She told me that she was supposed to put up the signs the day before but she didn't have the right color. She wanted something that would really stand out. When she got the right color she was too tired to put them out the night before so she decided to put them out the next morning before work, around 5:30....When she saw our signs she knew that she was supposed to put her sign right underneath.