Fire-dog, called such because of his blazing orange color, is a name which just didn’t work for me. Since he looks exactly like Laudie-dog (female name with “-ie”), he’s now officially Laudy-dog (male name with “-y”). Even on his rabies tag.
Before the trip to the vet:
He’s been able to lie down once again without taking hours to do this.
I’ve never seen him sit, but that’s coming I’m sure. The Vet mentioned seeing him sitting.
He’s gone from not eating at all, to eating one hand-fed kibble, to eating without being hand-fed.
He’s happier to go in and out of the house without this being an end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it event.
He has no more nightmares.
When he goes number two, he would scream. That’s going away.
The result from the visit to the Vet is that he has no heart worms, no whip worms, no ring worms, and he’s got all his shots for distemper/etc and rabbies.
The Vet examined the tail-thing that going on, and it seems he might have a dislocated tail, perhaps hit by a car, perhaps, you know… But I’m told that will very likely heal on its own in another week or two. All good.
He’s calming down after whatever trauma he went through, confident now that he’s not going to get hit or kicked or smashed down. He’s learning to assert himself.
Adopting a dog is good. Getting adopted by a dog is really cool.
All of a sudden there are gangs of dogs in the entire region here in Western North Carolina. These three, pictured above, include a couple that are run of the mill pets. But there are also beautiful dogs in such or gangs, such as that young puppy Husky-Wolf combo (see the widely placed, very short ears, along with the enormous puppy paws). Such gangs of dogs are new to the area. No collars.
Are they just being dumped by animal shelters, even from out of state, kill or no-kill, which simply don’t have the funds any more to deal with the dogs?
I mean, are people just dumping their dogs because of the high price of dog-food? And so there are way too many dogs for the animal shelters to deal with?
Did dog-fight idiots die, or were they arrested, with the result that all the bait-dogs were let go to fend for themselves? They were all pets previously.
Are children trafficked from the border being cage-fought (a thing around here), you know, to the death, just like the dogs. There’s a super-abundance of kids being trafficked. That changes everything. Cage-fought kids bring in higher spending gamblers more than just dogs. And the kids can be trafficked for porn and sex as well. So, ditch the dogs, right?
Meanwhile, Fire-dog seems to have a developing history of how he came to the church doors with no one ever having seen him previously. The night before Fire-dog was seen for the first time up at church a neighbor to the church spoke of a car in the upper-parking lot, and a car door slamming. That was Fire-dog being dumped and abandoned. I’m guessing that was to save the life of that dog, as Fire-dog was obviously abused terribly.
And, I mean, thanks for the compliment, you know, that that Catholic priest up there seems to like dogs a lot, and had a dog just like that, and maybe he’ll take care of this dog… blah blah blah…
But I can’t take care of all the dogs people are dumping all of a sudden…
I’d just like to note, however, that there might be an opposite and more far reaching effect that no one likes to think about when it comes to an overabundance of dogs. The dog-fighting idiots might start up again.
And there’s always a next step, as there is always bigger money. If dog-fighting for betting starts up again, you gotta know that cage-fighting whatever kids will start up again. And that’s a lot easier now.
Fire-dog is looking rather stern for just a second, but then figures out what a mirror is.
Then there’s a glance back at me, a glare, really, reprimanding me for having tricked her to being inside the mirror.
And then, with a heart-stopping “I’ll show you, you wise guy, you” kind of look, she totally jumps into the mirror and stares at me from inside the mirror itself, making me interact with the Fire-dog in the mirror as revenge. Heart stopping intelligence.
You recall Saint Paul’s thoughts:
“For now we see through a mirror [ἔσοπτρον], enigmatically” (1 Corinthians 13:12).
A mirror provides a reflection, does it not? And NOT necessarily of oneself if one knows how to use a mirror in other ways, such as is the case with the last picture of Fire-dog above, using the mirror to look at me.
Elsewhere we read about this reflection of God in His good creation, unless people do not want to see that reflection:
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
That verse from 1 Corinthians 13:12 about now seeing God through a mirror enigmatically continues:
“…but then [we will see] face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
In heaven, there are no tricks with mirrors. The beatific vision is most direct. God is love. I love that.
Background: Laudie-dog died a while back. Shadow-dog saw me bury her.
Yesterday after the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, “Tiny” (he IS Sasquatch) and I had a long discussion about dogs, something like pet dogs, protection dogs, service dogs, bite dogs, drug dogs, IED dogs, cadaver dogs, disease dogs, you know, man’s best friends, you know, Laudie-dog, Shadow-dog…
As we went outside we discovered Laudie-dog apparently redivivus. I’m naming this fiery orange Ridgeback Rhodesian Lion Dog Fire-dog for obvious reasons. Fire-dog was stubbornly lying on a carpet next to the church entrance, directly in front of our vehicles, right in front of the entrance of the social hall, strategically positioned, impossible to miss. This Fire-dog wanted to be noticed, possibly in trouble health wise.
This is the most quiet, most friendly, most humble, most unassuming fire-dog ever. Really sad, that, for the reason that I think this fire-dog was desperate to look cute, to be instant life-long friends with whomever it was that came along. Sorry, but I suspected that there must be some dark history of terrible suffering behind all that.
Tiny provided some treats that he always has on hand in his V.A. provided Jeep, though he has no dog himself, not yet anyway. It didn’t take any coaxing at all to get Fire-dog into the passenger seat of Sassy the Subaru. We went to the Veterinary clinic straightaway. No chips. No tattoos. And no collar, by the way. The one in the picture was picked up at the house, having belonged to Laudie-dog, fitting this Fire-dog perfectly. We then went to the animal shelter to see if they recognized such a creature. Nope. We asked people in town in the know about all the dogs on the streets. No one had seen Fire-dog previously.
The absolute earliest appointment with the vets is March 2nd. I’m thinking Fire-dog might not live until then. And that’s not because Shadow-dog would overpower and kill Fire-dog. No. They were instant lifelong friends. Never seen anything like it. Shadow-dog was entirely calm and respectful of Fire-dog. I think Shadow-dog knew that Fire-dog was terribly sick and that I wanted to do something for this Fire-dog. All good. Stunningly amazing though because of how instantly they were forever friends.
The reason I think Fire-dog may not make it is because of having suffered a possible act of domestic violence or a traffic accident. All the signs are there. Cowering. Nightmares. Timid. Taking, like, over an hour, maybe two hours, to circle about, ad nauseam, before laying down on a carpet for the remainder of the night, after waking up from a nightmare, having awakened by shrieking a shriek to bring down the house. It made Shadow-dog wake up, having him almost go through the ceiling in fright.
Also, this Fire-dog is not eating much. Only a few kibbles that I hand feed one at a time, just to please me. Maybe just shy, maybe sick. But the vets visit is a week out. I remember when Laudie-dog wasn’t eating because of a liver infection that finally took her out.
This was all on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, which is to be about friendship with Jesus, spiritual exercises of almsgiving, prayer, fasting, providing for the widow and orphan. Yes. But I also think that being respectful of such creatures as are put in our paths quite literally surely by our guardian angels is consistent with all that which is more exalted, with love of God and neighbor.
As with Laudie-dog, Fire-dog is no rescue dog. I didn’t adopt Fire-dog. Fire-dog adopted me. Just like Laudie-dog. They own me, not vice versa. Shadow-dog is a rescue-dog, but that’s also a badge of honor, right? He’s still that Alpha when it comes to protecting me from attacking pit-bulls and such, and rightly so.
The stats point to this correlation of treatment of animals and humans. Abuse of animals indicates that abuse of human beings has already taken place or is about to take place, the stats climbing towards 100%. And while taking that from the other direction, that respect for animals necessarily means respect for human beings isn’t always true, that respect for animals is nevertheless good training for our fallen human nature to respect human beings. Well, that’s true if there’s just one more thing: humble thanksgiving for Jesus for having taken us deadly seriously, we who were such vicious dogs ripping Him to shreds on Calvary by our sin.
“For dogs have compassed me about, the assembly of the wicked have closed me in; they pierced my hands and my feet” (Psalm 22:16).
With Jesus forgiving us, we become instant lifelong, eternal friends with the Son of the Living God. He makes it so. “I call you friends,” He says.
Jesus took us on while we were smacked down by our sins, sick from our sins.
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 