A cute young woman rang our doorbell just as we’d got the kids into bed and eaten dinner. She looked familiar and I panicked thinking she might propose to me or something. 

She said, “My dad and I wanted to thank you for your help with Nelson last night. We were in our pyjamas when he got out and were so worried. I’m sorry he jumped on your kids. Thank you for helping us.” She handed me the flowers and a nicely wrapped giant bar of Toblerone chocolate.

You see Sunday night after we had church at our house, I heard Bill and his friend, “Monkey,” say as they were leaving, “Hey, is this your dog?” This cute little white clean dog went running around in our driveway. I greeted him and tried to encourage Noah to pet him. Noah usually loves dogs but he was freaking out for some reason. Ella, who is more likely to freak out, was standing on the boot of our car and so felt safe. 

I noticed the dog didn’t have a collar and suddenly thought as it seemed to be running somewhere, “I better pick the dog up and hold it.” I thought I might think of a good plan to help the owners find the dog by at least keeping it from running further away from home. That was when this young woman and her dad walked by and saw me holding him. 

I enjoyed having that experience with Ella and Noah. It jogged dog stories from my youth that I’ve already begun to tell Ella at bedtime. 

I was blown away by the generosity of the family that gave us flowers and wrapped chocolate! I feel like a piece of cynicism, sarcasm, and greed was chewed out of my life with each bite of chocolate.