Everything I Know About Miracles, I Learned From My Dog Mulligan

This is the tale of three dogs; Jordan, Charis and Mulligan. Well, three of my dogs.

Jordan, was our black lab, we adopted in Pensacola around 1996. She was a wonderful perfect dog. Never needed a leash to walk her. One day in early May 2008, we noticed she was not right. Took  her to the vet, and to make a long story short she had to be put down that week. She had advanced stages of liver cancer.

This happened right in the middle of my business crashing and burning, my wife and I having serious marital issues and basically smack dab in the middle of the crap hitting the fan in my life. This was year 1 of a very long 3 years journey.

Our family was devastated. And being the man of the house that I am, wanted to get a new dog within a few months. Sarah, my wife, resisted. We didn’t know if we’d be living in a different house, or where we’d be living, could we afford a dog, it was all up in the air.

To  top it off, we couldn’t agree on the type of breed. I was done with a lab (everyone has a lab) and wanted a German Short Haired Pointer.

Eventually, as is usually the case, I wore my wife down in February of that next year. We contacted a breeder to adopt a female German Short Haired Pointers. We named her Charis (Greek for grace).

Once we got her home and took her to the vet for her check up, we noticed her legs were kind of ‘off’. In the end she had experienced trauma to her legs and her patella had fused to her knee joint. She had to be put down. We had her less than 1 month. It just killed me.

I had worked hard to make this new dog happen. Done my research, contacted the breeder, worn him out in finding the right kind of deal on the dog. Only to see it all fall apart in less than a month.

For three months I was just numb. Basically feeling that I’d never get another dog. We couldn’t agree on a type of dog and didn’t want to get burned again. Two things we did know… I didn’t want another Lab, my wife didn’t want a male dog.

I had stopped talking about getting a dog, stopped looking at the rescue pages, stopped contacting breeders. I had given up and resigned myself to not having a dog for a very long time.

Sounds like a place for God to show up…. and boy did He.

In the middle of April of that year, less than 4 weeks after we put Charis down my wife and I were at a horse show with the family. We noticed off in the distance a chocolate lab with the rescue group. My wife and I both looked at each other, saying.. ‘Wow what a beautiful dog’.  We noticed the handler had him well trained. Perfect coat, not a blemish on him. Except he was, well, a he.

My wife said; ‘oh well, too bad, so sad, he’s a male, no way, let’s keep going.’

Except we couldn’t keep our eyes off him. We talked with our friends in the rescue group. His story was simple. He was an owner surrender. The day before, he was slated to be put down by York county rescue. The lab rescue group went and picked him up about 1 hour prior to him being put down.

He was most likely a pure breed lab. He was trained, about one year old. Maybe two. To say my wife and fell in love with him, was and is an understatement.

By the end of the weekend he was ours. The absolutely perfect dog for our family situation. He fit right into our routine and loves to do all the family things we love to do.

Oh and the dogs name? Mulligan.

Why is that significant? In golf a Mulligan is; redo of an errant shot, usually on the first tee. It is also known as a ‘redo’.

I know what you are asking yourself.. “Geez, Matt, this is a great story, but what has this got to do with miracles?”

Well everything.

When we lose something near and dear to us, our tendancy is to work like hell to get it back. We work hard, we strive, we plot, scheme, plan and basically work to force the hand of God to what we want, when we want it, in the manner in which we want to get it.

This is what I did with Charis, the second dog. I forced the issue and in the end experienced a bunch more pain. I was bound and determined to get the dog I wanted in the time frame, I thought acceptable.

However, that didn’t work out, did it. But God had a plan to get us the perfect dog for us. Even though, my wife didn’t want a male and I didn’t want a lab.

When we saw Mulligan, my wife and knew it was the right dog. We tried to denie it for a few minutes, but the pull to him was uncontrollable. It all feel together perfectly for us and it was totally the hand of God.

The best part? The name that was already in place for the dog. Mulligan. My wife and I joke, Mulligan is our prophetic dog. A reminder from God that he knows the perfect timing of it all and if we do screw up and try to do it in our timing, He’ll give us a Mulligan. A redo.

I have to keep this in mind as my family languishes with one car and we desire to have a second. Or in my business when things don’t grow as fast as I want them to grow, or just in life or business, or whatever.

The first rule is ‘Father knows best’. The second is: ‘If I screw up and try to know what’s better for me vs. God, then if I do screw up, God will always give me a Mulligan.’

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