Meet Lucky (the cat) and Zeus (the dog). Zeus lives here at the Griffin compound, and Lucky at the hardware store. Never let anyone tell you that animals were not created to bring enjoyment to humans. And sometimes heartache.
Several years ago I was visiting the home of a man who had terminal cancer, only weeks to live, and a puppy named ‘Moose.” A gangly, already oversized chocolate Lab, Moose had wandered up to his house after being dumped by an uncaring city folk. With time short and a love for the dogs welfare, he asked me to take him home and keep him. We did, but Mary said “Moose” had no class, and that the name must change, so Moose is now ‘Zeus.’ More class, but no more manners, he jumps on folks, barks a lot, and sometimes runs away.
I don’t think he runs away, I think he just gets bored and loses his way. It is normal for him to leave in the morning and not come home till afternoon, or once in a while, dark thirty. Tues night he did not come home at all. Or Wed night. Or Thus. Or Friday. After 5 or 6 years we had gotten pretty used to the dog who knocks on the door to get out, and knocks when he wants back in. The dog who sheds hair by the buckets and snores and barks in his sleep. And most especially the dog who gets up off his rug and comes over to first one of us, then then the other, only to lay his big brown head in our lap before going back in front of the TV to continue his nap. Zeus.
Can you imagine what Tues night was like? Or the next? By Thursday it was obvious he was not coming back. Someone had taken him, or the coyotes had eaten him. It was sad to think of either possibility. Mary and I went around the house separately trying not to let the other see that we were upset; but we were. Totally so.
Friday I took his bed and bowls out to the garage so the neighbors dog could make use of them. (More so I would not have to see them lying there empty in my office.) It hurt. A lot. How do you pray for a dog? Is it normal? Is it useful? We did anyway.
And can you also imagine the joy when Mary called me at work Sat afternoon and said “Zeus is home! He just walked up to the door and looked in.” All is good again.
As for Lucky the cat: Michael, my boss, lives 20 or 30 miles from the store and drives in every day at 7 in his pickup, gets out and opens the store for business. One morning he got out of the truck and heard a soft meow, and, opening the hood, found a soft little grease covered kitten under there. ‘Lucky’ was thus named, and aptly so, and moved into the hardware store as the store pet. He greets anyone and everyone who comes in the door, plays all day with paperwads, empty boxes and anything that dangles, until he is so tired he drops and falls asleep wherever he is. People come in the store nowadays just to see Lucky.
This morning Jacob, a young co-worker, was on Facetime on his phone with a friend when a customer came in, so he laid the phone down and walked away from it. Lucky peered into the screen and lo and behold there was a face he did not know looking back at him. The face was Jacobs friend, and he saw the cat and meowed at it. That set Lucky straight up in the air and got his immediate attention. The face in the phone then got his own cat and put it in front of his screen, and Lucky when ballistic. The two cats meowed at each other, scratched the screens and carried on like they were in the room together. What a sight. Pure, simple, peaceful joy. It was a rare sight indeed.
I said all that just so show how animals have impacted our lives, and, I bet, you have as many tales to tell as I do. We have certainly all been soothed and aroused and blessed by the lives of animals. I think God planned it that way. Don’t you?
But I think He had a plan just beyond the animal kingdom in mind. I think maybe He sent the animals to show us how to love one another without condition or reservation. Don’t you wish we could just learn the lesson as our furry friends have learned it?
Nuff said, you’ll have to excuse me, something is scratching under the chair. It just may need loved on.
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