When you welcome a new puppy in your home, it isn’t a matter of if your puppy will chew up something, it’s when and what. It isn’t a segment on the evening news when a new puppy owner comes home to find a half-chewed sandal, or a shredded pillow, or a gnawed wooden chair leg. You know this, so you do your best to protect your belongings by supervising your puppy as much as possible until it knows better. Our puppy Sassy was still learning what’s hers and what’s ours when we all went to bed one night, each thinking someone else had made sure she was secure in her crate. When Sassy greeted my husband at the bottom of the stairs in the early morning hours the next day, it was one of those “oh-no” moments. She had chosen to chew the edge of the Bible left on the coffee table. How can you discipline any creature wanting to spend time with God’s Word? Time has now past since that day and as time with a puppy increases on the x-axis, the number of chewed items you don’t want chewed up decreases on the y-axis. So, Sassy is often left out of her crate unattended on our gated property. Well, the other day we arrived home to find chewed plastic all over the driveway. “What…is…that?” we all said in unison. It turns out Sassy had found an open donated box of medical supplies my husband left in the garage to bring to his next medical clinic. He’s the medical director of a clinic that provides free medical care to refugees in the city of San Antonio so we often have extra medical supplies scattered around. Well, if you gathered up the chewed pieces and fit ’em together like it’s a jigsaw puzzle, you probably still wouldn’t have guessed what it was. Sassy had actually spent an afternoon chewing up a foley catheter and drainage bag. And, just like Humpty Dumpty, it couldn’t be put back together again. I’m sure she’s the only puppy in the history of the world that has chewed up a thin, sterile tube that’s inserted into your bladder to drain urine and the bag that collects it. Or maybe your puppy also prefers catheters to bones?
Why isn’t franch in my dictionary?
It's because my family made it up. It is both a verb and a noun. It is when you are not quite farming and you are not quite ranching. Instead, you're franching. It's like a hobby farm. But, that doesn't fit either, because it is way more than a hobby, it is a life. You spend way more than you make doing it. Yet, you still do it. And every life lesson can be learned on a franch.
FranchLife Lessons Learned
- The Lost Art of Writing Thank You
- Better than Blogging
- A Story by A Second Grader
- Summer Reading
- A Good Life
- How You Know You’re a Francher
- The Best Border Collie Ever
- Get Them Before They’re Gone
- The Old-Fashioned Way
- I’m Not Leaving
- His Mother Said That
- Easy to Make Lasagna
- A Poem in all the Mess
- Christmas Came
- If You Only Want A Sentence, You Better Say So
- God Speed the Plough
- Dinner Conversation
- Dressing Up
- Award-Winning Children or Chickens
- Love (And Little Sleep) Can Make a Fool Out of You
- A Miracle
- Do you Want the Good News or Bad News First?
- Who’s the Farmer’s Wife Now?
- Where’s Waldo?
- Just Ask Siri
- How ’bout a Toy?
- Stay
- Love Beyond Words & Borders
- It’s Chigger Time
- A Spider in a Tupperware
- Puppy Makes History
- Being a Mom Comes First
- That’s Not the End of the Story
- A Knight in Shining Armor
- A Little Bit Like Heaven
- The Grass is Sometimes Greener but it isn’t Home
- New Friends Not in a Row
- Your Life is About to Change
- Where is she?
- Franchsitters
- It’s a Matter of Perspective
- Gifts on the Franch
- Lucky
- The Day a Calf Lived
- How’s the what?
- Wooden Egg Prank Gone Wrong
- Where Did It All Go
- A Beautiful Sunrise
- Life’s Too Good on the Franch
- Sunday Best with Dirty Fingernails
- Rocking Chairs that Don’t Rock
- It’s All About the Breast
- To-Do Lists on the Franch
- The Day He Became a Hero
- Dancing on the Franch
- New Year’s with Chickens
- Exhausted yet I’d Do it all Over Again
- Reflections on Christmas on the Franch
- Not Your Mama’s Manger Scene
- Giving Back What Isn’t Ours
- Did That Just Happen?
- Hide-n-Seek on the Franch
- Man versus Water Pipe
- A Sense of Humor Required
- Unwelcome Guests
- I Won’t Run Out
- Muddy Paw Prints
- All it Takes is a Rubber Band
- Be Careful What You Wish For
- I’m Sorry, But…
- Empty Stomachs on Thanksgiving
- Franching Gets in the Way of Writing
- Animals Don’t Care
- Cow in Labor – Grab a Pitchfork, Don’t Ask Why
- No Parenting Chapter For This
- Time can Kill a Chicken
- Our Thumbs are only Light Green
- Going Broke
- In the Arena with Wild Hogs
- Franch Fashion
- Act Before You Think
- Bad Fences Make Good Neighbors
- The Birds and the Bees Hijacked by a Buck
- The Early Bird gets the Adventure
- The Other Man
- Eat Veggies Not Friends
- Saying Grace with Sincerity
- Am I a Boiled Frog?
- Why isn’t Franch in my Dictionary?
advice to me
- Grammy on Better than Blogging
- Grammy on A Story by A Second Grader
- Poppy on Better than Blogging
- Poppy on A Story by A Second Grader
- Gigi on A Good Life
- Annette on The Best Border Collie Ever
- Lin on Get Them Before They’re Gone
- Kit on The Old-Fashioned Way
- Poppy on The Old-Fashioned Way
- Lin on Easy to Make Lasagna
- Poppy on Easy to Make Lasagna
- Brad on Dinner Conversation
- Brad on Christmas Came
- Lin on Christmas Came
- Lin on God Speed the Plough
- Kelly on God Speed the Plough
- Seth on God Speed the Plough
- Kit on Love (And Little Sleep) Can Make a Fool Out of You
- Poppy on Love (And Little Sleep) Can Make a Fool Out of You
- Poppy on Just Ask Siri
The 11th Commandment
Thou shalt not eat thy neighbor’s Bible
Jeremiah 15:16. Sassy was just following in Jeremiah’s steps. More stories about how faithful Buddy is.