Sunday February 2, 2025
Dear Diary,
Good morning God,
- Thank you for this day.
- Thank you for deep sleep.
- Thank you for hot springs.
- Thank you for friends.
- Thank you for snow.
- Thank you for pet sitting opportunities.
I love you!
I awoke at 3 AM. I finished writing my blog and posted it. I played wordle and connections and slept more from 5 AM to 6:30 AM. I let the dogs out and put on positive morning affirmations to listen to. I woke Angel up, fed her breakfast and made her lunch. I made myself tea and a smoothie. I packed up our luggage and supplies. It was our last day pet sitting Lucky. Her owners messaged me last night saying that they were coming home that evening, a day early.
Once I got everything packed, it took me a few trips to get it all in the truck. Bits had gotten in the truck while I was making trips back and forth from the house to the truck. When I got everything loaded, Angel got in and we listened to Nancy Drew on the drive to Council. It was snowing out and had been snowing for a few hours. Needless to say, it was slow going through the canyon but we made it without incident.
When we got to Council, we stopped at my friends and got Angels phone. Then we stopped by my older sisters so I could grab my snow boots. Her boyfriend was still there, so I did a quick run in and out being as quiet as possible. When I got back in the truck I suddenly realized that Bits wasn’t with in the truck us. Oh no!! I had been so busy concentrating on driving safely in the snow that I hadn’t noticed. I felt panic overtake me. I knew that he would chase me if he had been outside and saw me drive away and I had driven 30 miles. Plus I switched his collar and his tag with his name and phone number is still on his old collar. I chastised myself for not making sure he was in the truck before I left. I chastised myself for not making sure he had his identity tag on his collar. I started praying.
I had to clean the bank before tomorrow morning and I was scheduled to lead children’s church. It would be 4 hours before I could drive back to New Meadows. I was too distraught to wait that long. I canceled doing children’s church and cleaned the bank as quickly as I could while Angel waited in the truck. I prayed that Bits had gone back in the house before I left. I kept giving my fear to God and then taking it back and going into a full panic. What if Bits was lost in the snow storm? What if someone took him? What if he was sitting at the front door in the cold? What if he had gotten ran over? All those evil “what ifs” kept going through my mind. Then I would switch to being ok. Bits was probably in the house. Even if someone saw Bits and took him, I would get him back. Even if Bits was gone forever, I would be able to handle the grief.
The drive back to New Meadows seemed to take forever. I didn’t want to put myself or Angel at risk by driving fast in the snow storm, so I drove slowly and stayed focused on the road which was a relief from being focused on Bits. I kept my eye out for Bits in case he was running down the road. When I pulled up to my pet sitting house, I didn’t see Bits outside. I ran inside and there was Bits hanging out with Lucky. Relief flooded over me. I picked him up and hugged him. He was safe!! Yay!! I held him and cried with relief.
After I recovered, I got started cleaning the house. The owners had paid me to clean the house as well as pet sit. I started the sheets washing so they could come home to fresh bedding and deep cleaned under the kitchen sink. I took a break from cleaning and saw a group message from my family saying that one of my uncles had been missing since yesterday afternoon. He left without his phone and he never came home. Oh no! The police were searching for him and a bunch of family members were driving around checking out his favorite fishing spots. I prayed he would be found safe and well.
I continued cleaning and when I finished, I got ready to drive to Donnelly to do a dog walking opportunity. I checked the group message and saw that my uncle had been found. One of my aunt and uncles had found him stuck in the mud out by a bridge in the middle of nowhere. Yay!! I was so glad he was found. It had been a crazy emotional day but all was good now. Again I was flooded with relief. I loaded up all my cleaning stuff and gave Lucky some treats. I told her that her people would be home later on and before we left I made sure Bits was in the truck.
Angel and I listened to Nancy Drew on the drive to Donnelly. It was still snowing but the main roads were clear. When we turned onto the side roads to get to the dog walking house, the snow was pretty deep and I was hoping we wouldn’t get stuck in my 2 wheel drive pickup. At least it’s a front wheel drive which does much better in the snow than rear wheel drive. I also had my tire chains with me and a shovel in case I needed them.
I was surprised we made it into the driveway without getting stuck because the snow was really deep there and it was really narrow. I parked under a pine tree, the tree had blocked a lot of the snow and it wasn’t very deep underneath it. I wasn’t sure how I would get back out of the driveway but I would deal with that later.
I went in the house and was greeted by Roscoe. He is a beautiful golden lab and was super friendly. I petted him for a few minutes and put his leash on him and we went outside. Angel and I bundled up in our coats and put Bits on his leash. I introduced the dogs to each other and they were instant friends. We walked up the road and Roscoe did great at listening to my commands. His owner told me that he would like Roscoe to run off leash if I felt comfortable with that. I told him that I would see. After walking with Roscoe for a while, I did feel comfortable having him off leash. I let him loose and he ran over to a snow drift and plowed through it head first. I let Bits off leash too. Roscoe and Bits ran and played the whole hour that we were on the walk. Angel got into playing in the snow and we threw snowballs for the dogs to chase and we threw snowballs at each other. Angel climbed up some snow drifts and we had a lot of fun. I took a video:
While we were out dog walking, someone has plowed out the driveway. Yay! I put Roscoe back in the house and wiped him down. We drove to McCall and I bought some groceries. Angel was hungry so we stopped at a Mexican restaurant and I ate some vegetable tacos.
I had been debating on whether to stay in McCall at my friend Brett’s house since I will be dog walking in Donnelly tomorrow and I don’t have anything going on in Council until tomorrow evening when I clean the bank again. I know there is a steep hill to get to his house and he also has a steep driveway. I had called him earlier to ask if they were plowed out and he said they weren’t. I didn’t want to get stuck. It had been a long day and I was tired. I also didn’t want to drive all the way back to Council to our camper. We won’t have access to running water at the camper until spring. I have jugs of water and plan on making a composting toilet with a 5 gallon bucket. I don’t have the bucket yet though and the hardware stores were closed. I decided to stay at Brett’s and called him to let him know I was on my way.
When I got to the hill in front of Bretts house, I didn’t make it all the way up. I backed down and put the truck in low and tried again. I still didn’t make it. I backed down again and tried a third time. I made it a little farther up but didn’t reach the top. I backed down and this time a suv came up behind me. I knew I had to make it all the way up this time because there was no way to back down with a car behind me. The 4th time I made it up the hill and I had enough momentum going that I easily made it up the driveway. Yay!
Brett helped me unload all my food out of the truck so it wouldn’t freeze overnight. Angel and I got settled in, then Brett and I played scrabble while Angel watched kids shows on TV. We played 3 games of scrabble and it was almost 10 PM by the time we finished. Angel and I brushed our teeth and went to bed. I slept in Bretts mom’s room and Angel slept on the couch. Angel read Oh The Places You Will Goand got snuggled in her blankets on the couch. I wrote my blog notes and watch videos on my phone. At 11 PM, I put on a sleep meditation and drifted off to sleep.
Thank you for reading my blog and being a part of my life. I appreciate you.
Love, Victoria
P.S. this blog post was inspired by the Holy Spirit.