Dogs Don't Chase Parked Cars

Dogs Don't Chase Parked Cars

When I first married my loving husband, Michael, he worked for the South Pacific Division of the SDA church, here in Australia. We lived in a comfortable home owned by the Division office, that was located on a main thoroughfare of traffic. We had a gaggle of pets, a new born baby and a beautiful collie dog named Prince. Prince was gifted to us via a neighbour, who had sadly parted from him as he accepted a call to mission work, in Papua New Guinea.

Prince, a large and active dog, was handsome in every way. His rough, long, full coat of fur shimmered with tones of cream, white and tan, while flecks of sable flanked his face. He was elegant and graceful in his movements, appearing to float over the ground as he ran joyously around our grassy yard. Prince was charming, loyal and affectionate in every way, responsive to Michael and I. His deep brown eyes in his wedge shaped head, held a look of intelligence, excitement and love. He was a devoted dog, soft and gentle with our growing baby. Prince was the perfect family dog but he had one major weakness, his love for chasing cars.

Collie dogs historically come from Scotland and England where they have, for many centuries, lived as working dogs, herding cattle and sheep. Their main task as drover dogs was to guide the cattle and sheep to the markets. In the 1860’s, the then reigning regal Queen Victoria, visited the picturesque Scottish Highlands, fell in love with the collie dog and brought this breed into popularity. The beautiful collie dog was thrust into the limelight in 1943 with the release of the Hollywood Movie, “Lassie Come Home” and the subsequent movies and television series has kept this breed in demand.

Our gorgeous Prince had all the personality and tenaciousness of Lassie mixed in with the desire to run and herd of the Scottish Highland canine of long ago. Our fully fenced yard kept Prince’s desire to chase cars safely contained. One night, however, while we lay sleeping exhaustedly between  the feeding times of our newly born daughter, a neighbour frantically started knocking at our bedroom window and calling out anxiously to us. Startled out of a deep sleep, my husband attended to our neighbour. Our darling Prince had managed to escape from our yard and had dashed up our road ,that was frequented with traffic, to enjoy his past time of ‘herding cars’. On this occasion however, Prince was hit. With eagerness he had crouched by the road side waiting for his next car, a hunter green rover. Prince leaped out for the chase, but in his anticipation of the thrill before him, his timing was out, and instead of finding himself racing wildly after the car, barking in frenzied delight, he ran straight into the side of the car. The thud and the crumpled, forlorn, isolated figure of a dog by the roadside, seen in the review mirror, alerted the driver. He stopped and upon inspection of his car, which had been damaged, he set out to find the owner, discovering our friendly neighbour in the process. My husband exchanged contact details with the owner of the expensive rover, and scooping our bedraggled dog into his arms, he loving brought him home. 

Prince had been tragically injured. After X-rays and an examination at the local vet it was ascertained his two front legs had been painfully broken. Patiently he endured his time spent at the vets where his front legs were placed in  fibre glass casts and bandaged, making walking almost impossible, or so we thought. With all the perseverance of his breed he did manage his own version of hobbling as we faithfully cared for him. Meanwhile, all was not well with the owner of the dark, mossy, green, expensive rover. It seemed our dog had chosen to plummet feet first into the car of an insurance con man. He was known by insurance companies for his dishonest claims. Initially, he used all his charms to convince us to cover the costs of the damage to his car, which he was increasing dramatically by the day. I prayed. We prayed. God heard our cry for help. In a panic of despair I was led to call our insurance company for advice, only to discover a small clause in own home contents policy that covered damage created by pets, even to ones that chase cars. Joyfully, we contacted the Rover owner to let him know he could deal directly with our insurance provider. Anger, bullying and control tactics were all used to coerce us into dropping our insurance company from the situation. We were legally able to prevent all contact with the intimidating man, discovered his history and left his predicament with our insurance company to handle. 

We knelt in thankful praise to God for his financial protection. Prince went on to heal, his desire to herd cars remained, but our vigilance prevented him from anymore opportunities to fulfil his  doggy dreams. Dogs don’t chase parked cars. They chase cars that are moving speedily forward. Sometimes in life it can feel like the devil is just chasing us down. He knows how to hit us hard when God is doing great things in our lives. Crises after crises tumbles one upon the other in quick succession, finances crumble, health stumbles, relationships falter, hearts break, death stalks and patience is tried. God seems silent and life feels chaotically spiralling into a dark place. Keep moving forward. Keep holding on to God, persevere in prayer, talk faith, think faith, sing praises even when you don’t feel like it. Keep on keeping on with Jesus. God is moving you into the purpose for your life. Dogs don’t chase parked cars. God is moving you forward into all that He has for you. There is a rainbow after the rain and the dawn comes after the darkest of nights. Hold on to Jesus, He’s holding onto you.

Eph 6:10-12 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armour of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places

James 4:7,8 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.