Well it is official.  Abbey, my beautifully obstinate German Shepherd is underway with training to be an ADA service dog for me.  There are A LOT of fake service dogs out there, and they are not hard to identify, but the only thing she is faking in her picture is a lack of hair.  Yes, that is MY skull cap that I wear because I “corrected” the haircut my wife gave me poorly.  Her haircut was fine, my ability to think it was fine was not.  So I “corrected” it to the point that I had to shave my head.  I assure you that Abbey has a full head of hair underneath my cap.  She is just being supportive.

Yesterday we went into Lowes as part of her training.  She did great, although she was not too sure what to do with the Halloween witches and the fork lifts.  In her prior training she would most likely rip them to shreds, but she is now on course to become something different.

It makes me mindful that where we are in life need not define us.  I sometimes struggle with that, as I am often deeply dissatisfied with where I have seemed to end up.  But in truth, I have time, and I need to afford myself a bit of grace.  God can do for me what I struggle to do with myself.  And if I have any doubts about that at all, my dog can take off my skull cap and motivate me with a quick bite in the tail.

In the meantime, I think I will just listen and go along.  I am glad her hair looks good under that cap, and look forward to the day that mine does too.

Tommy+