Tulla

A guy called Steve this afternoon and said that he found a small white dog sleeping in his shed this morning.  When he approached her, she wouldn't let him get anywhere near her.  He called Animal Control and Animal Control gave him Steve's number.  Steve took the kids and drove out there and looked for Tulla. 
No luck.

Then this evening, a friend stopped by our house to let us know that they had spotted Tulla in the ditch close to their house, which wasn't too far from where she was spotted this morning.  We immediately dropped everything and jumped in the van to try to find her.  We drove back and forth in that area for a half hour or so, calling her name and keeping our eyes peeled for anything that might even resemble a small dog. 
No luck. 

Taylor decided that all the kids in the van should pray for Tulla to come back.  Zeke responds, "Tulla please come back to us."  Tay lets him know that they are supposed to be praying to God, not to Tulla!  So the kids all prayed for us to find Tulla.  Us adults were ready to give up but the kids wanted to keep trying.  So I let them open their windows and yell for Tulla, hoping she might hear us and come running.
No luck.

We turned down a random street in Indian Hills and had kids yelling really loudly out the windows of the van.  We got kind of a strange look from a couple who were talking in a driveway.  As we were pulling away, the lady asked if we were looking for a dog.  I said, "Yes, a little Shih Tzu."  She said, "We live a couple streets over and I think she's in our dog's kennel."

We followed them back to their house (they had been chatting with a friend), they opened their garage door and we all walked over to their dog kennel.  And sure enough,  huddled inside was a dirty, hungry, wet shivering Tulla.

The couple said that they had left their garage door open and Tulla had snuck inside and curled up in the kennel.  The guy tried to check her tag but she wouldn't let him anywhere near her.   A few years ago, I would have told you that we had good luck finding her but that wouldn't be the truth.  The truth is that God heard my kids prayers and choose to answer them with a dog!