Excessive love of dogs


The goofy faces to the left belong to Amber and Max, our standard poodle puppies, who will have their first birthday on May 16th. Below is Shadow, our older standard poodle, born June 11, 1996 -- she's the boss! She's not very fond of the pups, and she tends to bully them a bit, though they're both bigger than she is. That's why she gets photographed separately.

I had a boyfriend once who said I had an excessive love of dogs. He was from Ireland, where (he said) dogs just lived outside. That he's not my husband now speaks volumes.

When I come home after work, there they are -- and so happy to see me! They're priceless to me, which is why I call them Woman's Best Friends. When my spirit has dried up like old shoe leather, when life seems like a barren spot surrounded by mountains, there they are, with their tongues hanging out, ready to go running in the woods.

Thank You, Lord, for dogs.

I'm not feeling very profound tonight, just grateful.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I am absolutely with you on the topic of dogs!

We have some around here that I'm not too excited about - I call them rats on a string b/c they are really that small - but generally I LOVE all normal size dogs. We have a zillion seminary dogs - my favorites include a soft coated Wheaton terrier (wow - what a great breed - they love everyone!), an English Mastiff (yes, in a New York apartment) and a Bernese Mountain Dog - huge, fuzzy, and beautiful (I may steal her away sometime...) :-)

Last week while interviewing for a field placement I met the rector's dog, who gets to come to work with him. I went from mature, professional seminarian to happy silly dog person being loved by a golden retriever in about 3 seconds flat.

I almost married a non-dog person. I should have known it wouldn't work!

Two nights before I married Dan I was sitting on the couch at my parent's house watching Dan snuggle with Bear on the floor when I burst into tears. My mother, horrified that the bride was crying, asked what was wrong. "He's just so nnniiiiicccceee! Look at him with Bear! I'm jjus just so so glad I have him..." I sobbed. Yep, dogs are a good test of a man. :-)

-the dog lovin' seminarian who just spent two hours researching the compilation dates of half the books of the Hebrew Bible - 1/5 of take a home exam that was supposed to take 3 hours total...
1:21 AM
Dennis said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
1:53 AM
sharecropper said…
My best friend is a standard poodle named Georgia, named not for the state, but for an area in Canada that was her original home. But, I do love the little snuggly dogs and the medium sized dogs and even those goofy labradors (as long as I'm not on the receiving end of tail wags).
12:10 AM
Mata H said…
I'm not feeling very profound tonight, just grateful.

Oh my -- I think gratitude IS very profound.

I am a dog person as well, and thankfulness for the canine heart is a very special spiritual moment.
4:40 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Just call me Grumpy

I went out into the cold this morning to bring in the newspaper, and got an unexpectedl treat. The sun was just coming up behind my neighbor's house, peeking around her garage in a pale blue sky crisscrossed by pink, fluffy ribbons of cloud. The landscape lay under a faint, optimistic, pinkish glow. I didn't care. I don't feel optimistic. It's hard living with a guy who lost a hundred pounds on Weight Watchers. There's nothing like a convert to make everyone uncomfortable. I have gotten tired of his lovingly pointing out to me that I'm obese. Not chubby. Not pleasingly plump. Obese. The "O" word. I come from a whole family of cheerfully obese people, thank you very much. They enjoyed life; they enjoyed food. They got diabetes in their 60s. They didn't enjoy that very much. So much for my argument. So here I am, day two of Weight Watchers, glaring balefully at my breakfast of 3 Rice Krispies and a tablespoon of fat-free milk. "I'm so
Read more

When life turns on a dime ...

Life is precarious. We all know this, but we often forget it until reminded. Yesterday morning, my colleague and good friend got a telephone call from his wife at her office, informing him that a neighbor had spotted flames at their house, and had called 911. He and his wife both raced home. Both their boys were safely at school, so that was not a worry. But the fire had apparently burned for nearly two hours without detection, so the house was pretty much a total loss. But the newspaper this morning captured the worst part: "House fire kills pet dog." Glacier the husky was in his crate when the fire erupted. He died from the intense smoke and heat. I refuse to picture this in my mind. The family is distraught, especially the two boys, aged 7 and 5. They can rebuild the house, and get more "stuff." But Glacier is gone forever. Or at least in this life. Dogs, like people, should grow old and die in their beds. No one deserves to go this way. I guess time and faith wi
Read more

Summer blahs ...

OK, I'll admit it. I've been slacking. I know I should be blogging about spiritual matters, but the fact is, I'm tapped out. I really struggle to get through summer. Now, I know how silly that sounds! My dad suffered in the winter from seasonal affective disorder (SAD), but I don't think there's an equivalent diagnosis for those who find summer days tediously endless. But that describes me. I loathe heat and humidity, both of which we normally have in abundance here. I love the beach, but never seem to get there. I come home from work and sit on the porch in a funk, reading pulp fiction to pass the time. I don't think I'm depressed; I'm just not inspired. It's also true that the Church on the Pike cycles way back during this time of year. The Rector takes a long vacation; while he's gone, we either have supply priests, if they're available, or we do Morning Prayer. Small groups also tend to go on hiatus. The choir is having a rest. I had a
Read more