When Setbacks Happen

Today a friend was telling me about their dog and the bevy of health issues its dealing with. We're talking hip replacement, knee replacement, blindness and the poor thing is diabetic. My filter didn't work at the moment (plus I'm not a huge pet person anyway) and I asked: "So who's holding on to it, you or your wife?"

I know that seems heartless, but I really think you need to let poor suffering animals go sometimes. His answer surprised me.

He said, "No! She's the happiest little dog you ever did see." He explained how she copes with her disabilities and still has a great quality of life. He thought people could learn a lot from dogs.

And Here's the Lesson:
He said a dog could lose a leg and still run around doing pretty much everything it wanted to - never complaining, just doing. He knew a lot of friends who had setbacks and just gave up. One friend has been unemployed for three years and is living in his car. If you ask him why you don't try and find a job, the answer is - there's nothing out there, so why try. He explained that this friend had given up.

Happy Thought
Things might be bad, but if you give up, it definitely won't get better. And sometimes setbacks open up new opportunities you never would have seen otherwise.

See that three-legged dog pictured above, here's its story:


Meet Snoopy, who is a drug-firemarms-munitions sniffing police dog in Wiltshire (that's in England, for the rest of ya) A police spokesman said: "We're not aware of any other three-legged dogs working for the police across the country. He's a great asset, although a little unusual looking now."

Snoopy had to have his rear leg amputated after an injury he received became infected and he developed arthritis. As you can see, he's doing fine. He is set to retire soon and will live with his handler, PC Hand who said: "Snoopy is a real pro-active search dog, he has had many successes and the loss of his leg appears to have had no real effect on him, its just like he's had his toes clipped." Well, as his mom probably told him when he was a pup, "No whining".