A sweet ending to an otherwise bitter week! + Free Ephemra - Vintage French Postcard

Sometimes ...okay not sometimes....almost always...when you plant a garden, you get weeds.  And that's what this week was like in my soul garden journey...full of weeds!  

I don't like to complain, but it was just down right rotten.  Dana came down sick with the flu this week, 102 fever and all.....and so did I.  It's not often that Dana is sick in bed and he will NEVER give up a hunting trip...so when both of those occur, you know he's down for the count!

The next weed in the journey was Tuesday when my Dad called and asked for Mariah to come stay with him and help him because he was sick.  He NEVER asks for help...he's stubborn and doesn't want help...so you can bet that I rushed Mariah right over there to take care of him!  I also made it very plain that he was NOT to go to work on Wednesday night - I would do that for him.....

Now it's Wednesday, things are somewhat normal...I'm working in the studio...I let my Baby Bear Charlie outside to play and do his business...I'm not feeling all that great...but not all that bad either.  I go to work for Dad, I come home....look on the couch...see Maggie our bird dog and say...Where's Charlie Bear?

Dana replied...I don't know, I thought he was with you?!?!?!  PANIC! 

It's now 8:30 at night, we live in the country, it's pitch black, I grab a spotlight and head out to find Baby bear...I call and call...i walk and walk...I spotlight as far as I can see....No baby bear....my heart sinks.....and the flu is setting in.......

There's nothing I can do until daylight...I've been everywhere he would have gone....

At first light on Thursday, Dana and I are up, dressed......It's cold and rainy, my chest is aching and burning from coughing....but I have to find Baby Bear!...

We have 170 acres of field behind the house.  We get Maggie, our trained bird dog, and set out to find Charlie.  We call and call...maggie is sniffing every where...conditions are perfect for a dog scent...

But no baby bear.....We get in the car and go all over the neighborhood....

I'm now running a fever.....

After 4 hours of searching we come back home....I feel miserable...physically and at heart....I make posters and then set out to all the vets in the area to hang them.....

nothing.....

I come back home about 3 pm - it's over a day since we've seen him....my fever is 102...I have to go to bed, I can't go anymore.......I am just sick....beyond sick....this is the worst...

Early Friday morning the vets office called... "A lady living near Sparta saw a dog today that matched Charlies description..."  "That's 10 miles away" I said.  But the lady said, "who knows maybe someone picked him up and dropped him off" ...It's worth a try!...Miraculous healing! (sorta) I popped up and told Dana.  we both agreed that we had to try....so out the door to the area where he was spotted....hopeful...yet...trying not to get our hopes up to be let down again.....I leave cards in doors with his picture.....We come home empty handed.......

I have to get some things done today...but all I can do is look out the window and hope that I'll see him coming over the hill towards home....It's now 48 hours since we've seen him.... I'm trying to cope with not seeing him again.........

The phone rings....it's Dana making is usual phone call while he's waiting to pick the kids up from school.  He's been awesome through this...searching...calling me ...trying to comfort me...checking in on me...

For some reason at that moment, I felt the urge to take a walk....it was 65 degrees out...sunny and warm...and I said to him, I think I'll just take a walk behind the house in the back 40 again.  I can use some fresh air....

Earlier I had Maggie sniff Charlies bed and said to her "We have to find Charlie"...

So I grabbed Maggie, gave her a good pep talk and said..."let's go for a walk mags - let's find charlie"...

She led me down a ravine behind the house......and she started digging in a hole.....I knew she had something...but I really thought she was chasing a squirrel.....

 (this is maggie when she found charlie)

 I could see her trying to get at it...and I just kept saying.  "find it ...find it maggie...find charlie"....and then.....
I heard a wimper........I thought it was Maggie wimpering at first....but when I got closer I saw a nose...
I saw Charlies Nose......and he was crying.....

My first thought was "OMG I MAGGIE FOUND HIM" I was so thrilled and so taken that I couldnt find the right buttons to push on my phone to call Dana....

Charlie had evidently followed a squirrel or chipmunk into a burrow and got stuck...really stuck...

I put my hands on him and said...it's alright "Baby Bear...Momma's here...I'm gonna get you out."
I dug and dug with my hands and a rock for over an hour....

I bruised my hands to pieces but I didnt feel a thing.....and finally...I got him out - with all the family there cheering that Charlie was now SAFE AND SOUND!

So there we are both caked in mud and dirt! I don't want to repeat that adventure ever again....

But I did journal it in my Soul Garden journal...

A sweet ending.....to a bitter start!  I'm done with weeds...hopefully next week I'll be blooming back to health again!!!

Thanks for letting me share this story with you! - 

I picked up this postcard from a flea market in Paris last year when I went there with Mariah.  

The postmark is 1904

I hope you enjoy using it in your artwork.

Click on the picture - then right click "save as" its in PNG format