unlikelyclay.com

My son was invited to go hog hunting during our recent trip to Florida.  Hog hunting in Florida is best done at night and usually the hog is not shot, but captured, so he or she can be fed a little corn before he or she becomes bacon. 

But technology has now reached into the backwaters of Florida and my cousins, who took my son, have upgraded their tools.  There are still tracking dogs and catch dogs, but now they have added a taser.  The taser is used to stun the hog with high voltage electricity, thereby temporarily immobilizing him.  The hog is then tied (hence, hog tied), and carried to the truck, where he or she is placed in a cage.

I was not there for this night of hog hunting, have now grown old, but my son reported to me that a hog was indeed located by the tracking hounds and the catch dog was let loose.  The four boys followed with flashlights and spotlights, and came upon a small hog surrounded by three dogs, snarling and snapping. 

My young cousin Syd, was holding the taser and decided this would be the moment to taser the hog.  Unfortunately, Syd does not have the best aim.  He plunged the taser toward the hog at the very moment a dog moved in front of him.  In Syd’s excitement, he mashed the button anyway, and the poor hound received a dose of voltage, paralyzing him temporarily.  Syd then located the correct hide and administered the electric charge to the hog, who also then fell paralyzed. 

It sounds like a bad Hemingway rip off, doesn’t it?  The Hog.  The Dog.  Paralyzed against the dark.  Enemies no more.  Victims together.

The hog was loaded into the cage and the dog recovered – but I can’t help but wonder what the dog thought.  According to eyewitnesses, the dog shook it off, but didn’t bark as much the rest of the night.

Life will zap you.  The phone rings, a note is left, an email is discovered, and you feel the charge of emotion run through you.  The issue is:  Will the zap capture you or will you shake it off, be a little subdued, and move on.

This Sunday, I begin a series called Family, Imperfect.  We all receive jolts in our families – Does God have a way to help us move on?  I believe He does.  Want to hear about God’s way?  Come Sunday.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 4th, 2007 at 9:11 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, Sundays, Ranch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.