MAGIC MYSTERY.
Our dog Sandy is having his lump removed on Monday. His last lump – which was removed two years ago, almost to the day – was a mast cell cancer which we were told can kill within weeks. We were so lucky at the time, because our previous vet had been telling us for ages (months and months) that the lump was nothing to worry about and it was only taken out because he had to have an operation for something else and they said they might as well remove the lump at the same time. Fortunate too is the fact that Sandy has gone a full two years without any further problems.
Sandy’s pedigreee name is Magic Mystery. Below, I have copied something about Sandy’s history which I wrote in 2006 on a website of mine. It will tell you exactly why I believe that Sandy truly is a ‘Magic Mystery’.
John Bradburne came into my life very unexpectedly – and brought with him a dog……..
It really began on new year’s day in 1996. Our daughter had been going through some difficulties at school – verbal bullying, I suppose you would call it – though we had no idea just how much it was upsetting her. I had been concerned for a while that she had been saying she was fat (although she was definitely not overweight) and over the Christmas period my mother thought she heard her being sick in the bathroom……. but it was on January the 1st, when my husband and I took both our children out for a pizza and our daughter could not eat a thing, that we knew we had a really serious problem on our hands!
I remember coming back home and throwing myself on the bed in despair. Then I remembered John Bradburne………. my husband had shown me a newspaper article about him some months before and, for some strange reason, I had wanted to keep the article for myself and had hidden it under the bed – where it still remained, gathering dust. In truth, there had been one previous occasion when I had asked John for assistance when our daughter needed urgent help and I had really felt that God had – through him – heard my prayers. So now, lying on my bed in tears, I begged him to intercede for me urgently.
Almost at once, an overwhelming belief that we had to get our daughter a dog came into my mind. She had always wanted a pet but I, not wanting to be tied down by having to look after an animal, had refused her everything apart from a budgie and a rabbit. She loved them both – the budgie in particular was a very unique and special creature – but once this idea came into my head that day, I knew we just had to get her a dog.
They were dark days, when even getting her to eat an apple seemed a major achievement. She closed up and tried to shut us out totally……. for a while it seemed almost as if she hated us. But she did seem happy at the prospect of having a dog. Actually getting hold of a puppy at short notice did not prove so easy though. How could we find a bitch that had just had a litter of puppies? To complicate matters, our daughter saw a picture of a golden retriever in a book and set her heart on having one. After a few phone calls though, we did track down somebody about 45 minutes drive from us with a golden retriever that had just given birth and so found ourselves, one cold and frostly morning, looking at these little balls of white fur huddled up beside their mother.
Of course, our daughter fell in love with them – and one in particular. I however, was a bit unsure. A golden retriever was a much bigger dog than I had been thinking of. Not only that, but this dog was a pedigree and expensive, whereas I had really been thinking of a mongrel. Was this really a good idea?
I gazed out of the window…… a small snowfall overnight still lay on the ground…….. and I spoke to John in my heart: “Do you really want me to get this dog? We would need him to be a magic dog, to work miracles for us”. At this point, the lady who owned the dogs told us the puppies’ pedigree names – they all began with the word ‘magic’ and one was called ‘Magic Mystery’. I really began to think that John was telling me to get this dog!
So it was that, one day almost 3 weeks later, we collected ‘Magic Mystery’ and brought him home. Our daughter gave him an ‘ordinary’ name of Sandy and we soon grew to love him. Our daughter’s eating did slowly improve and although she has contined to have many problems in her life, the anorexia did not develop further.
As for the dog himself, he has been a constant joy to all of us. You could never find a more good-natured, sensitive and loving dog.
When he was still a puppy, I bought my daughter the video of the Lion King which had recently been released. As we sat and watched it, a noise on it frightened Sandy (he has always been a bit of a wimp!) and – without realising what he was doing – he jumped onto the sofa for the first time (he had previously been just too small and nervous to try it!). Following that incident, I often called him Simba after the lion cub in the film. It was only a month or two later when I finally bought and read the book about John’s life (Strange Vagabond Of God) that I learned that he had looked after a dog called Simba in Africa. Ever since then, Sandy (or ‘Magic Mystery’) has been ‘John’s dog’ in my mind! I truly believe that John, in his own way, ‘told’ me to get the dog for our daughter.
Sandy will be 11 this December (2006). Last December, he had a cancerous lump removed and things were not looking hopeful for a while. He recovered though (no doubt with John’s assistance) and is often mistakenly thought to be a far younger dog by other dog-walkers that we meet.
We all dread the time when Sandy’s life will come to an end – but I am sure that John will help us get through it – as he has done with many family difficulties during the past few years!
I really love the poem that John wrote on the death of his Simba:-
Please keep us – and the dog – in your prayers.
Holes In The Sky 