God Bless the Animals - Angels Unaware

Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. ~Hebrews 13:1,2

My blog today is very different from most.This morning I felt compelled to write about my dog, Maggie. I have dogs. I love dogs. I studied Veterinary Medicine because I love dogs, and other animals. Animals have always been my teachers. They don't have nearly the capacity that we do to objectify the self, and that keeps them grounded in the natural order of life...a benevolent and honorable posture. I have great reverence for that quality in animals. .

This morning at o’dark thirty I was checking my mail on the phone in my big easy chair. My tried and true buddy, Maggie, a black Shar Pei  cross loyally lay at my feet. I started to get up and glanced down to mark my step over her sleeping body and she looked up at me. Now, I am just in love with this little dog. So I immediately began to pet her and speak to her in my lovey-dovey voice about how thankful I am that she stopped by my house 4 years ago. In my mind, I go to this place of deep gratitude and wonder at the mystery of how so many of the dogs we’ve owned simply show up in our life, seemingly from nowhere. Such blessed gifts from God.

It was four years ago on an Ash Wed evening, that I came home to find my big dog, Spot, Security Central, had trapped something in a corner of the outside of our house. Thinking it would be an opossum or a ‘coon, or something of that nature, I went immediately over to see what Spot was guarding. It was a small black puppy, the size of a basketball, about 3 months old…Maggie. She was just petrified with fear, growling and snarling and all kinds of mean. Well, yeah! Spot is a gangster of a big dog and can be very intimidating. Suffice to say, we kept Maggie, as we do so many of the dogs and puppies that appear on our doorstep.

It’s bit of magic, I think, that these sweet animals come to us. Divine intervention, if you will. They have to have a mama and siblings somewhere, a place of origination. But that remains a mystery. We do have a dog whose mama was a wild stray that could not be caught. When she had puppies, my friend managed to corral the pups and find homes for them, but the mama dog remained feral. Most of the time, we don’t know where our dogs come from. But I feel they are supposed to find us. And they make incredibly loving pets.

So, this morning, I loved all over little Maggie, telling her how grateful I was that she chose to stay with us and how I loved her. I kissed the top of her soft black head, rose to standing, and strode toward my study. She, anticipating my movement, jumped up and ran for the kitchen (the treats). Half way between my study and the chair I looked back at her. She stood poised at the kitchen door looking at me with a shocked expression that said, “After all that lovey-dovey talk you aren’t going to give me a treat?”  Oh okay, I turned and went to appease her complete obsession with the “snaps.” My days of rationing treats are waning….dog lives, and my own, are too short for such nonsense. In the dog world, if you really want to profess your love, you pet, talk lovey-dovey and you treat. And so it is….

God bless the animals...may we remember that we share this planet with them and they depend on us to make good choices for them. Go love on your pet today and don't forget the treat! (NOT people food!)

_/\_Peggy