One time some of my single church friends were sitting around talking, when one lady expressed how unhappy she was with a dating service she had signed up with. They had come up with hardly any matches for her, and for this she had paid $1,200.

Before I even stopped to think, I blurted out, "Twelve hundred dollars! No man in the world is worth twelve hundred dollars!" After that I got a lot of kidding about if I had found my $1,200 man yet.

Soon after this, Shadow had his accident. (See related story.) He required 24-hour care at the vet’s office for the first three days to make sure his heart wouldn’t explode and to keep him still until his leg could be set. Then he had orthopedic surgery, twice. When all was said an done, this all added up to $1,200.

Was God trying to tell me that Shadow is my $1,200 man, or that all things are relative? If my dog’s rear end is worth $1,200, surely there must be a man somewhere who is worth as much as my dog’s rear end.