Posted on 10/05/2012 1:26:52 PM PDT by NYer
Today for the feast of St. Francis of Assisi and, like many parishes, we conducted a blessing of the animals. Over 80 neighbors brought their pets (mostly dogs) by for a blessing this evening. To each of them I passed out a little list of things we can learn from dogs. The list that appears below.
Scripture says little about dogs and when it does it is never flattering. Most of the references make one think of wild dogs who ran in packs. Psalm 22:16 says, “Many dogs have surrounded me, a pack of evildoers closes in upon me. Or again from Philippians 3:2, Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers. No, strangely, I cannot find one Scripture that speaks well of dogs.
And yet, they have been a great gift to me. Such loyalty, such unconditional “love.” There may have been times in my life when everyone was disgusted with me, even I was disgusted with me. But even on days like that my dog would still run to great me, and curl up next to me; such wonderful, “forgiving” and uncomplicated creatures.
Dogs, generally speaking, have a great outlook on life. This list is an oldie on the internet but, if you haven’t read it, it is really rather instructive. Dogs DO have a lot to teach us. God teaches us not only out of the Bible but in creation. In that spirit here are
Fifteen Things We can Learn from Dogs:
And here is one of the most amazing videos I have ever seen. It’s about “Faith the two legged dog”:
that is such a touching photo, I keep scrolling back to it...thx gg
Beautiful post. Thank you.
I had *very* few human playmates as a child.
My ‘friends’ were all animals.
I learned more from them than I ever learned from people.
People think I’m joking when I say I was ‘raised by wolves’.
When my family would not protect me from a ‘bad uncle’, my dogs did.
[and still do]
All of my ‘best character traits’ [such as they are] come from lessons taught me by dogs, most notably, loyalty and devotion.
I’m not sure who’d I be right now, if not for them.
I see my sister [who didn’t like animals] and fear that I may have turned out like her.
I got lucky.
Okay, that made me lose it.
In the past few years I’ve seen homeless men [often vets] with signs asking for help...with their dog loyally sitting at their feet.
Sometimes I gave money but more often, I bought a hot meal for the man and a bag of food and treats for the dog.
One guy, when I gave him the bag of dog food got weepy-eyed.
I had to go before I started crying, too.
Life is capricious and there’s always a chance it could be me on some corner, begging for food for my dogs.
Some jackass ratted out another guy who had makeshift trailer attached his beat up bike, in which he hauled and housed his Rottweiler.
They claimed ‘abuse’ and took it from him so it could have a “better life”.
The dog was well fed and healthy looking...much more so than the guy...and it obviously worshiped him
He was obviously feeding the dog *first*.
I hated those people.
That dog was all he had.
You really have no idea how much I love you.
When I was a kid (ages long ago) before there were leash laws, dogs roamed our neighborhood. Some of them visited the school playground at recess. One of them was a basset hound. There was no friendlier dog and he was ALWAYS glad to see the kids. His tail wagged and wagged as more kids ran up to greet him and pet him. I guess visiting the schoolyard was one of the highlights of his day.
16. Slobber over all those near you.
/facepalm
"And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, Desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, and no one did give him; moreover the dogs came, and licked his sores." Luke 16:20-21
Thanks for the post of the vidseo -it is exactly how I feel.
Incredible! We have a lot to learn from that dog and abilities.
This is such a beautiful thread. Thanks to NYer for posting, and thanks to Joe 6 Pack for the ping. And the video at the end is just the cherry on the sundae.
Wow! I've read Tobit but missed that. Thank you so much for sharing this intriguing fact from scripture.
When I worked in Manhattan, decades ago, there was a homeless woman who pushed a shopping cart containing her earthly belongings and, linked to it, was her companion dog. Ironically, when she passed away, the authorities discovered a bank book in her cart. The account contained $40,000!
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