Prayers for Polar

This is Polar, a 130 lb male Pyrenese, we brought him home last Friday to join us as a livestock guardian dog.  He is as sweet as he is fluffy and we fell in love with him in an instant.  But what we under estimated was his strength and the work it would take to get him adjusted to his new home.

So he joined us last Friday night and I was sure he would be happy and secure in the smaller goat pen.  By 8 am the next morning though he was gone!  When I discovered he was gone Paul had already left for the temple and the older boys were over an hour away at Paul's parents. Instantly I set Charlie in the high chair and put Clara in charge of him and George, then called to Maryanna to quickly throw on her coat and boots.  We ran into the woods calling for him but there was no response.

Not knowing what to do I instinctively called my mom, and cried, it was still very early in Utah but she got up, soothed me and let me let everything out that seemed to not be going right in my life at this time, the new dog running away was just the cracking point.  I was pacing the hay field still talking and crying when my senses came back to me, I was not properly dressed for the snow and I forgot Charlie was still in the high chair and I forgot to milk and goats and the cows and chickens were calling to be fed.  My mom promised to say prayers for Polar and reminded me to have faith in the impossible.

I completed all the animal care faster than I ever had before, pulled out my book of neighborhood #'s and starting making calls.  Again, they were here for me in an instant.  Someone came to watch the kids inside, there were two in cars circling nearby streets, one making calls to alert other neighbors and one with her dog back in the field and woods with me.  The breeder who only lives about 15 miles away came by also to help.  After a couple hours though he could be anywhere and there were hundreds and hundreds of acres of woods between us and his former home.

I did everything I knew to do, all before I could even get a hold of Paul on the phone, we made flyers and posted them at several locations, called animal control and drove miles calling his name.  It was hard to explain to Paul what happened, the dog just busted out of the pen and then forced open the gate.   It is also hard to describe how horrible we both felt, this poor dog was totally displaced.

For three days we kept praying and invited everyone we knew to pray for this wandering dog.  We spent hours wandering the woods and driving slowly down country roads.

We posted about him on facebook and craigslist and by Monday afternoon we had a few leads.  A jogger took a picture of what we thought to be him about 5 miles away, but it was another male Pyrenees, not Polar.  I slumped with discouragement and instantly heard a whisper "come on Alison, pull up your shoulders and exercise faith".  So I did and instead of heading home I suggested to Paul that we randomly stop by any home where we see someone outside.  A few more miles away there was someone getting out of his car and he said "yes!  that dog was here on Saturday but was too scared to come to me and ran into the woods".  We were encouraged but the reality was he could have gone miles since Saturday.  The next house was more promising, a man unloading woods said he saw him just that morning while he was trapping rabbits.  He drove with us back into his woods to show us where he was spotted and where he thought he may have run.  The man was very kind and even offered to put out some food and set up a camera to help in the rescue.

By now it was getting dark and it was time for dinner and family night.  Paul read to us from Gene R. Cook's book "Living by the Powers of Faith", we listened to the story of his scriptures being stolen somewhere in South America and weeks later being returned.  We prayed once again as a family, honestly I cannot count how many prayers were said for this dog.  Everyone was tucked in bed and Paul and I determined we were going to find him, we slipped out leaving James in charge.  It was cold and freezing rain so we geared up in insulated Carhartts, headlamps and Bog boots.  We drove slowly, stopped and got out where ever we felt like we should and kept calling for him.  I did not want to give up but Paul was scheduled to leave town the next day and I was obviously in need of some rest.  We went to bed still hoping for a miracle.

At 12:30 am I was woken up by the phone, it was our neighbor and Polar was just outside on his driveway, he had set off the driveway alarm.  We were over there in an instant but Polar was so scared and did not know us as his owners, we called to him in the dark and in the freezing rain and circled and searched around our neighbor's property but Polar stayed out of site from us.  We did this until 2:30 and soaked and freezing headed home for bed, we'd try again as soon as it was light.

At 7:00 am there was another call from our neighbor, Polar was spotted in the little vineyard on our property!  We jumped out of bed and Paul and I ran (and slipped on some ice) to secure the gates.  We finally had him locked in but he still would not come to us.  The breeder was heading out for the day but instantly made a detour to our home.  Her daughter was able to catch him and we had him back and this time secured inside a crate inside the goat pen.

I cannot describe the gratitude, relief, peace and comfort that followed, this was a miracle for our family.  We still have our work cut out for us and despite the emotional investment we've honestly had to ask our self if  it was right for this dog is to stay on our farm.

Paul fixed the pen door and we've secured all the fences and gates.  This dog will be on a short leash until he knows us and knows his place here.  The boys are doing a good job with him.

So far Polar likes William the most.  William checks on him several times a day and even took a little nap with him in the straw.

We are hoping he will bond to the sheep as they are most vunerable to predators.  So far though neither parties are very impressed.  But after the miracle of Polar's return, I am reminded with hard work and faith anything is possible.

And Archie our old faithful black lab is a good sport and looking more like a puppy next to Polar.

The other animals are not so sure, they are all on alert because honestly Polar does kind of look like a Polar bear.   So far though he has won the hearts of the humans so now I'm praying for it to work for all of us.