Today my dogs ate my daughter's guinea pig.

You see, it all started when I decided that the dogs needed a bath. It is too cold now to wash the dogs outside (yes, even in Georgia) and my neighbor said she puts her dog in the shower. I thought I would do the same because it wouldn't be too hard to clean up the mess. One thing I forgot, my neighbor has a detachable shower head to spray the dog with- I do not. After trying to maneuver a large lab and a very (I mean very) overweight beagle under the shower head that didn't move, I finally was satisfied with my effort. I congratulated myself by deciding that the dog washing was enough exercise for one day and I could skip my (sometimes) daily workout. All was well, or so I thought. The dogs don't normally come upstairs and when I sent them out of my bathroom I thought that they went back downstairs like good little (OK, not little) dogs. I was wrong. They decided to investigate my daughter's room and there they found guinea pigs and guinea pig food! While I was in my closet I kept hearing a loud squeak. The thought did actually occur to me "huh, that sounds like a guinea pig" but then I dismissed the sound as "but our guinea pigs aren't that loud". Not so smart. I heard the squeaking again and called to my son to find out that it wasn't him. I heard it again and by then decided I should run to find out what was wrong. I expected to see my lab eye to eye with two frightened guinea pigs but it was much worse. My dogs had tipped over the cage and our little Snowy was screeching as our lab stood over her. Of course, you have guessed by now that she didn't die since she was squeaking but she did look worse for the wear. I grabbed her up and tried to comfort her as best I could. She was all wet; I'm not sure if it was dog slobber or water left from the dog shower but she was scared. I put her in her hiding spot and then searched for the other guinea pig. She was perfectly fine hiding under my daughter's desk. As I was cleaning up the gigantic mess, I began to think about what had happened. Snowy has not been the easiest guinea pig. She is more timid than others and has needed a lot of time spent with her. I have been the one to spend that time with her and I have found that effort satisfying when I see the progress she has made. Snowy was just beginning to trust me but one curious dog may change all of that. All of the time and effort I put into her may be for nothing now. I asked God what he wanted me to understand from this and the thought came to me that we might do the same thing to other Christians. We don't know what is going on in another person's life. God may be teaching them to trust Him again, maybe He is helping them to become the person He created them to be. How easy is it for us to be just a little too curious (gossip, judgemental, critical) and have a negative impact on them. I know I have been that big bad lab before. God still loves me just like I still love my lab but hopefully next time I will be a little more gentle and help encourage trust not scare it away.