Many of you have asked about my dog Harlan since he was hit by a car a month ago. Originally, we took the news of severe nerve damage to his leg and decided to let him keep his leg for the time being to see if he would regain any use of it. That didn’t happen. Things got worse with his leg, things got gross with his leg, and we finally had to have it amputated on Thursday of last week. It’s surreal to see my hound dog moving about on only 3 legs. I’m surprised by him every time I walk in the room.

I took him in to have his nails trimmed, but I think they took a little too much off.

A friend came over to our house a couple of days ago and asked my little girl Ava about Harlan’s leg being removed. Ava told him, “Yeah, Harlan’s a circus dog now!”

Now if we can just keep our circus dog from chewing open his stitches, we’ll be good to go. He’s healing up pretty well already, and he’s moving around way better than he should be able to. I was kind of hoping we could keep him from jumping up on our bed for a little while…but, I’ll take what I can get.

Dogs are funny little buddies to have around. I wouldn’t consider myself an animal activist of any sort, but several people have told me that they don’t know if they could bring themselves to spend that much on having a dog’s leg amputated…that they’d probably opt to have the dog put down. All I can really say is that you just don’t know what you’d do in the situation until you’re in it. That, and I know that we made the right choice. He’ll be around for a good long while - and we never really knew how much we needed a circus dog in our lives.

Interesting fact: When I took him to the vet before the amputation, he was 49lbs - after the amputation a week later, he’s only 41lbs. Now that’s a serious weight-loss plan.

I am officially without vehicle. My 4Runner was sold to a man named Chih a few days ago. He came from Columbus and I stood in my driveway with an odd discomfort as he drove away in my car.

It wasn’t a mistake to sell the car though. People are assuming that we were stuck in a bad spot and that’s why I had to sell it, but to be honest…I just decided to sell it while I could still get good money for it. Getting rid of this car would give us an opportunity to do some other things. Work on the house. Buy a motorcycle. Get a cheap car with better gas mileage…blah, blah, blah.

I’ve never been attached to a car before. My personal automobile history is more numerous than most people my age. I’ve always driven cars that were a bit on the crappy side, so it didn’t really matter when they were gone. That 4Runner though…I think I’ll always miss that one a little. Other cars I’ve owned would include:

85′ Honda Accord (1st car I bought - learned to drive a manual with it - transmission went out at 240k miles)

87′ Ford Taurus (worst car ever - downshifted so hard it felt like you were hitting a brick wall - it did have some nice masking tape racing stripes though)

93′ Toyota Celica (the car I was most excited about getting, with the worst performance - replaced 2 engines in this lemon)

93′ Mitsubishi Eclipse (probably my 2nd favorite car ever - this thing just ran excellent, it was comfortable, fun to drive, and then I gave it to someone who needed a car - and he destroyed it)

85′ BMW 528e (while driving this car on the highway, the driver’s seat broke loose from the mounts and I fell straight backwards - I had to crawl up to my knees and use my right hand to operate the gas/brake to get to safety)

87′ Mercedes-Benz Turbo Diesel Wagon (Gold of course - approximate 0-60mph time…43 seconds - awesome car - terrible to deal with in the winter)

96′ Infinity J30 (beautiful car - bought cheap from an auction - threw a rod and was too expensive to repair)

96′ Toyota Tacoma (The little truck that could - if it had a backseat that would fit kids, I’d still be driving it - this little guy was a champion)

98′ Plymouth Voyager (filled a need for a time - took large groups of friends to random places - I actually like having a van…I’d even like a 15 passenger)

At this point I am borrowing cars until I get my new ride in September. My little sister-in-law Allayna is moving to Redding California to go to the Bethel School of Ministry. She’ll be leaving her car behind and getting something out there - I’ve been promised her current ride and I have to tell you…

…I’m pretty stoked about it:

1990 Honda Civic Wagon

Don’t be jealous. She probably gets around 84mpg and besides that, she’s a real head turner. Except mine will be blue. And rustier. And a little dented. But more awesome.

Who needs a fancy car anyway?

So my question today is this…
…what car have you gotten rid of that you miss, and what do you miss about it?