Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Thursday January 25, 2007

Upon arising this morning I mentioned to the Great Blonde that I had been thinking and I heard her mutter, "Oh, no not again!" And then in a near whisper, she asked, "What this time?" I suppose that over the 45 years we have both loved me, I haven't bothered her with much thought, so it's just natural that such a statement would strike fear in her little heart.

I was able to calm her with the assurance that I had been thinking about the dogs, Max and Molly and how much humor and inspiration they bring into our/my life. One of the reasons we can get along so famously with dogs is that we are forgiving about many of the outright sickening things they do, which were a human to engage in we would write them off forever, confining them to the charred regions of the damned where they could howl away eternity. Just think about it.

The other day upon returning from a trip we went to the Kennel part of Heritage Animal Hospital to retrieve the pooches. Molly was to be handled by Joyce and when Molly turned to corner she tried to turn herself inside out and sidled up to Joyce with a look of utter worship in her eye. What a reunion!

I paid the bill and one of the braver ladies, Nikki, brought Max to lobby. As she turned the corner Max caught sight of me and went wild with enthusiasm, barking and wagging his tail, his eyes becoming almost oriental like slits, and he too tried to turn himself inside out. Max is one of those dogs who upon extreme excitement totally loses control of his bladder, and thus Nikki was baptized in the Protestant manner, whereupon this stoic Florence Nightingale of the Kennel simply got a mop, and towel and said in response to my profuse apologies, "Oh, don't worry about it, he is just glad to see you."

Now just suppose I had been so excited to see Max, that I….Well, you get the idea. Such a joyous response to seeing a dog would make me headline news in every major paper in world, to say nothing of the fines for public indecency and the loss of job, and perhaps even the Great Blonde. For the life of me I cannot conceive of anyone in all of Christendom or Heathendom, cutting me any slack.

Why is this?

Because dogs are, often unconsciously, considered to be of a higher order and the lower order does not hold the higher order accountable. At least many preachers hope this is true. John Holmes expressed it like this:

"A dog is not almost human, and I know of no greater insult to the canine race than to describe it as such."

A spiritual application to this? Certainly; dogs carry slippers, shoes, purses, rabbits, the neighbors cat, clothes, fleas, ticks and burrs, but there is no known case of a dog carrying a grudge.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2007 Use with credit.

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