Dear Reader,
Today our guest writer is Dorie Furman, one of 2021 Honorable Mentions from my Write a DearReader Contest. Thank you so much Dorie for sharing your story with us.
The Mistake That Turned Into a Blessing
Mistakes have always seemed to find me. When I bought an electronic air cleaner to attach to the furnace, I paid extra for a remote button to put on the kitchen wall because the furnace was in the crawl space. The electrician installed it in the crawl space. The manufacturer's engineer had to reinstall it in the kitchen.
When I bought new shoes on a lunch hour, I opened the box to show co-workers. Out came two left shoes. When the astronauts were moon landing, I rushed to the department store to buy a TV, got home, opened the box and there in all its splendor was a TV with the picture installed upside down. We rushed to my parents' house. We didn't want to stand on our heads watching the moon landing.
Then one day it happened. The good mistake of my life that made up for all the bad ones. We had recently lost our Beagle. I found a rescue dog online. I wanted a mature dog that I wouldn't have to potty train. They brought out a little Cocker Spaniel whose fur was so matted that I couldn't tell which end was which. He's 8 years old, they said. Since he was a purebred, I asked why he wasn't on the preferred list. They said he was an old dog. Nobody wanted him. He was pathetic, but I took him home.
My niece was visiting, and the dog I named JoJo, was jumping everywhere. That dog, she said, is not 8 years old. I took him to my vet, who said the shelter was mistaken. He's a puppy! I didn't have the heart to send him back.
When I took him to the groomer, he came out looking like new. He was beautiful with soft velvety fur. The shelter's paperwork said he was adopted and returned three times. I soon found out why. He would run to my bedroom, climb on my bed and scream. He screamed at the groomer but I thought he was just scared. He screamed every day for 14 years. He scared the neighbors to death, until I convinced them he was just venting. Everyone got used to hearing him. He had the sweetest nature and loved everyone. His special thing was kissing everyone on the nose.
JoJo loved bones. His collection grew to 50 bones. Every day he picked one, took it to the yard, hid it in bushes and took the one from the day before back inside. I never heard him growl in all the years I had him. He slept on my bed until his legs could no longer lift him. He had moods. In one of them, he stayed on a rug under my dining room table. He and I shared Thanksgiving dinner together under the table.
This year was his last. It was heartbreaking watching him grow old and begin failing. He was such a trooper. Even though blind and almost deaf, he found his way through the dog door, and to his dish. He followed me to the computer room where he liked to sit near me while I typed.
JoJo lived to be 16 and I loved every minute of every year he was with me. The shelter's mistake was the happiest mistake of my life and it was worth going through all the bad mistakes, to have him for over 14 of the happiest years of my life, a mistake that turned into a blessing.
-- Dorie Furman
Honorable Mention, 2021 Write a DearReader Contest
* Congratulations to the winners of Why Some Animals Eat Their Young by Guest Author Dallas Louis: Kathy D., Susan G., Susan M., Paula T. and Rebecca V.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
This month's Penguin Classics book is HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENTS, by Julia Alvarez, with a foreword by Elizabeth Acevedo. I have a copy of the book to share with a lucky reader, so start reading and enter for your chance to win.
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