{"id":41115,"date":"2023-07-30T08:25:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-30T12:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/?p=41115"},"modified":"2023-07-24T16:27:59","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T20:27:59","slug":"matts-mishaps-68","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/matts-mishaps-68\/","title":{"rendered":"MATT\u2019S\u00a0 MISHAPS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cServing overseas as a small-town boy from America is intense, stressful and humorous! Enjoy a light-hearted story with me from our last 20 years overseas!\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Matt <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t invite Dogs to Father’s Day<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not sure if it is advisable, but we brought our dog from Indiana with us overseas.  I contacted the airlines ahead of time about the dog and cage size, and they told us it was no problem.  When we got to the Fort Wayne, Indiana Airport, it was a problem.  The flight to Chicago was on a small plane and the cargo door was too small.  How did the problem get solved?  They took her out of the cage, took the cage apart, fit the cage through the cargo door, reassembled the cage and put the dog in.  I am sure the ground staff was not happy in Chicago, when they realized what they had to do to unload the dog cage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was a tall skinny dog and several months old when she made the move overseas with us.  She was with our family during many of those special moments of life and work in those first years.  I know some people don\u2019t like dogs.  Others love dogs and say things like \u201cI\u2019m most human when I\u2019m with a dog,\u201d which sounds a bit corny.   I think dogs can be an effective tool to lower my blood pressure and calm my nerves when they are not stressing me out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Our neighbors in our new overseas neighborhood had never seen a dog like her.\u00a0 One older lady asked me once, \u201cWhat is your horse\u2019s name?\u201d\u00a0 She was a gentle dog with children and had a personality that was more like a cat.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We had our first son not too long after we arrived and I didn\u2019t have to wait too many months for my first foreign Father\u2019s Day celebration.  I learned that each country has a different date for celebrating Father\u2019s Day.  I initially thought this was great and I could milk it for all it was worth and get two Father\u2019s Days a year.  After a few years of this, my wife who carried the load to organize it, said, \u201cJust pick one!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On my first Father\u2019s Day, I was given a free cake from a local bakery shop, where I was friends with the owner.  For some reason that I can\u2019t remember, we had left the chocolate cake on the dining room table while we were out of the room.  Our dog\u2019s reach easily spanned the table\u2019s height and she ate a significant amount of the cake before we caught her.  Yes, having my first Father\u2019s Day cake ruined by a dog was bad, but I knew the worst was to come.  The dog spent the rest of my first Father\u2019s Day getting sick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many years later that gentle long-legged dog passed away.  We got another dog, and she is a short-legged dog that can\u2019t reach tables tops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something similar ever happen to you?   Contact me and let me hear your story! Matt\u2019s Mishaps, PO BOX 114, Grabill, IN  46741<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cServing overseas as a small-town boy from America is intense, stressful and humorous! Enjoy a light-hearted story with me from<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":41116,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,13165],"tags":[19551,13025],"class_list":["post-41115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-matts-mishaps","tag-invite-dogs","tag-matts-mishaps"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Dogs-on-fathers-day-matts-mishaps.jpeg?fit=666%2C539&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YQd9-aH9","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 04:49:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41117,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41115\/revisions\/41117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}