Escape Artists

My dogs amaze me. We have two large dogs and they are demented. Over the years, they have escaped with Houdini- like skill from every imaginable contraption and enclosure we have spent hundreds of dollars to buy. If I tie them, they slip their collars. If I pen them, they dig under, jump over or squeeze out of places even a mole couldn't navigate. They have chewed right through the bottom of a door on the garage with the fury of a beaver on steroids! Where does their desire to get away come from? I provide them with food, love, exercise and all the comforts a dog could wish for. I feed them scraps, let them chew on things I shouldn't and they have kids to play with. Why would they want to leave? After 8 years, they are now confined to the garage like it is solitary confinement. I have a kennel for them. I even had concrete poured so they couldn't dig out and I tried to put them in it, but the MINUTE I take my eyes off of them, they are off with the speed of an Olympic runner to swim in the river that is only a few blocks from our home.

They always return. They are always back before dark. They are always muddy and gross and smell like swamp water. They KNOW this is where the love and the food is, but they still insist on wandering. They love the thrill of the adventure. I can see it in their eyes when I let them out to do their business. If dogs could talk, I'm sure the conversation would go something like this:

Sandy: "Prepare yourself. I think she's going in the house to get us water. The minute the door closes, RUN!"

Lauren: "I'm just gonna pretend I'm pooping over here so she thinks I'm occupied, but I'm ready!"

I've given up. I know its their nature to want to go. I know that no matter how much I provide for them, they will wander and stray and seek high adventure in the back waters of the Illinois River. I don't provide dead fish to roll in. I don't have any dead animals for them to chew on. They don't realize how gross that makes them. They don't realize the dangers of getting hit on the road, or being snatched by well meaning animal lovers who think I'm being negligent. They don't realize there are rednecks lurking in the next yard with guns who delight in shootin' them wild dogs. They just know they like it at the moment.

I have reflected on my life and how often I've escaped God's kennel for me. He has always been here. He has provided everything I NEED, but maybe not everything I WANT because He knows all of that is not good for me (even when I think so). I always come back before dark...okay....maybe I've stayed out past dark a few times! I always come back smelly and gross, but He loves me anyway and feeds me and provides shelter for me. No matter what He has done to make my life comfortable, I have resisted, and I have tried to get away. I haven't realized the dangers of being away from Him, and if I did, I still went! It is my nature. It is human nature. I'm hoping at some point I can become smarter than my dogs and stay where I am loved....safe and secure.