What do a dog-napped puppy in Chico, California and the book You are a Badass by Jen Sincero have to do with each other?

The power of belief.

Let me back up a minute. About that puppy…

At the beginning of August I headed to Chico, California for an outdoor, socially-distanced memorial for trainer Mike McDaniel. It was a quick trip, arriving Friday afternoon and leaving Sunday morning. Saturday morning we met up with friends from a training barn outside of Sacramento in order to grab breakfast at an outdoor eatery. We parked behind the restaurant and headed to the front to order and wait for our food, where we’d bring it back to the shaded picnic area across from the gravel parking lot. Our friends from the Sacramento area had a Corgi puppy with them named Flash and left the puppy in his kennel in the vehicle while we ordered food, leaving the windows cracked a few inches.

As we waited for our food, the Bad Cop trainer (read this post if you don’t know what I’m referencing ?) looked down and saw a penny. We said she should pick it up, she never leaves a lucky penny lying and always has good luck whenever she picks them up. But she grimaced and called it a covid-penny, leaving it on the grimy black top.

We got our food and parking lot bloody Marys (anything to feel a little normalcy) and headed back to eat. When our friend opened her SUV to get Flash the Corgi out, the kennel was open and the puppy was gone.

Your mind doesn’t immediately go to the idea that someone stole a puppy. But that’s exactly what happened. Within an hour we had the security footage pulled up (the management of this restaurant was so incredibly helpful). The approximate amount of time that passed between us arriving to the restaurant and the puppy being nabbed was 20 minutes total.

The guys who took him were already parked, backed in, and watching the lot when we all arrived. We stood around briefly in the parking lot, talking about the puppy, oblivious to anyone around, and leaving the windows open. So they knew what they were after. They waited for us to head to the front of the restaurant, exited their vehicle, slipped an arm through the open window, popped the lock, lifted little Flash out of his kennel, and then drove out of the lot. The first of our party to head to the picnic area probably walked right by the car as it rolled out of the lot.

Imagine going to a memorial, already an emotional experience, and then having your brand new puppy stolen out of your vehicle. We were all sick. But there was very little time spent feeling helpless. If you ever need a job done aggressively quick, ask a group of horse trainers. Within another two hours we had postings in as many California Corgi Facebook groups as possible, were monitoring Corgi’s listed for sale on Craigslist, and someone had 500 flyers printed offering a reward for Flash’s safe return, no questions asked. We drove through neighborhoods as long as we could looking for the vehicle that had been in the security footage. And Bad Cop went back and picked up that lucky penny she’d dismissed as a covid penny earlier.

Our friend was beside herself with worry and grief, but Bad Cop assured her the puppy would be returned and someday this would be a crazy story we’d repeat every time we saw each other and laugh. I wasn’t so sure, but I didn’t want to be a buzz kill.

Folks, at 9:40pm that night, she got a call that a woman had the puppy. “rescued” the puppy from a homeless individual hanging out at Home Depot and then…somehow inexplicably found our friend’s information on the reward flyer¹. But we didn’t care. We had the puppy back.

To Bad Cop’s credit, she never once doubted we would get the puppy back. She made sure we did everything in our power to get the puppy back, but she also believed in the good outcome.

Seemed like a crazy-lucky ending to me.

Fast forward to now, I just read You are a Badass by Jen Sincero. The book is technically a self-help book, but it reads more like your slightly older, and much wiser, (definitely wealthier) friend telling you how to stop screwing up your life and live the one you really want to be living. If you read nothing else in the book, just read chapters 25 and 26 (Remember to Surrender & Doing vs. Spewing).

“Your faith in The Universe must be stronger than your fear of not getting what you want.” The point she’s trying to get you to understand is that you absolutely must believe you have value and are worthy of good and positive things. She goes on to say that, “You have to keep the faith, always, even when your ass is on the line.”

You might be thinking, well wow, thanks Theresa for this happy horse shit in the middle of a pandemic and financial ruin and, and, and. . . I know. I know this period of time has been like taking a dip in a Jacuzzi filled with liquid shit. You don’t have to tell me. Read some of my earlier posts. My life is no bed of roses. It’s not even an inflatable mattress of roses. More like a sleeping mat covered in thorns and a sprinkling of rose petals.  

But– I believe.

I believe in myself. I believe in my value, the love I have to give to my friends and family. I believe in the good that is coming my way.

Finding the puppy was never about the lucky penny.

Finding the puppy was about putting in the hard work at the same time as believing the puppy would be recovered.

We are heading into a winter where people will be challenged. Challenged financially and mentally. Challenged with loss and change and social isolation. It’s not going to be easy. But, you gotta believe man.

 ¹ It’s our belief there’s a racket of people stealing puppies and extorting money for their rescue and/or reselling them. We had a few people contact us via Facebook through the day telling us the same thing had happened to them. At least one of them recovered their puppy.