From the heart: Good things happen at the right time

By Anne Mukei

I have three dogs, one female and two male. I know I have said it before; the idea of owning them was never mine, but my family’s — my sons and their father. Of course, when my boys are happy, I am happy; and so I go by what they like.  I am diligent in feeding them, and ensuring they are comfortable. The three did not come into our home at a go. Black, the female one, has been with us the longest (six years). When she came, she was so lonely, thus we decided to get for her a companion.

And so after a year, she had a partner in crime, whom she could bark with, eat with and play with. Jimmy, Black’s partner was what we expected in a male dog. There was only one small matter. He was not getting Black pregnant. Months turned into years and nothing was happening, and so we gave up on the two ever-getting puppies.

We toyed with the idea of having a doctor check them, but we never acted on it. We loved them just the way they were, and we continued to feed and wash them. Sometime last year, we got a Jimmy look-alike to join our family of dogs. They were now a crowd, and everyone was happy. Our hopes of having cute little puppies were reignited, but with time they died — Black was still not getting pregnant.

But just like how life decides to throw surprises when one least expects it, on Tuesday, Black shocked us all. Earlier that evening, we had noticed that his bark was rather strained, but we did not know that she was just about to deliver a litter of puppies! And so when my older son asked me to go out and see, I brushed him off and told him to take pictures to prove he was telling the truth. It is the small noises from the six puppies that confirmed what we had always wanted.

With their arrival, I realised that one can never really force things, that they happen when the timing is best. I have also realised that sometimes there is so much fruit in what we may write off as unproductive, and that even after we have long given up, it is never really over. I have also realised that the promise of life is endless; it is like a bottomless barrel, because you never know where the bottom lies.

I have also discovered that there is time to give up and a time to try out for other options: and that it takes a lot of wisdom to know when and how to apply this. Most important, I have learnt that life can come out of what you consider a ‘barren’ situation. For when life is a dog, you turn around the corner and find it’s a bouquet.