What Our Dogs Can Teach Us

 We live in a dog-friendly neighborhood.  Everyday, weather permitting, I see people walking their dogs. Men and women, old and young, couples pushing strollers, teenagers, some riding a bike with their dog on a leash.  Once I met a woman walking her cats. She had three of them on leashes which she periodically paused to untangle. There aren’t many “cat-walkers.”

 After years of feeding, bathing, picking up poop and emptying litter boxes for the dogs and cats that belonged to the family, our kids grew up and left home. The house was quiet. Even the pets were gone. I decided I wanted my own dog, just for me. It took several months and many promises to my wife that I would do all the feeding, bathing and poop picking up, but my wife finally agreed.  We adopted Buddy, a tri-color Corgi.  

 Buddy isn’t with us anymore. After 14 years he lived out his Corgi-life.  But the memories and the lessons he taught me remain. Here are a few things I learned from my dog, Buddy.

 Buddy trusted me.  Whenever I got in my truck he jumped in and took his place, ready to go.  He didn’t know where we were going or what we were going to do. But he believed that if I was driving it was okay.  I need to be more like that with God.  I always want to know where we are going, when we are going to get there and what we are going to do once we arrive.  I need to jump in the truck with God and give him control of my life.

 Buddy wanted to be with me.  He didn’t care if he was at the lake running, splashing and rolling in the mud, sitting in a chair next to me on the patio or in my study lying at my feet while I wrote.  He just wanted to be where I was.   I need to spend time with God.  What made the early disciples different was the fact they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).

 Buddy followed me.  He even followed me from room to room in the house. Whenever we went for walks on an empty beach, I let him off his leash and he ran free.  But he kept an eye on me.  He developed a radius of his own, about thirty yards from wherever I was.  Within that radius he felt comfortable sniffing washed up driftwood and marking sand dunes.  Occasionally he got out of eyesight. But, when I called his name he came running. Not real fast, but as fast as he could. After all he was a Corgi.    It reminds me of what Jesus said to His disciples, “Come, follow me!”  “My sheep know my voice.” 

 Buddy waited for me. When I was writing, he rested his head on his paws, kept one eye on me and waited.  If we were walking and I stopped, he sat down with his tongue hanging out and waited.  If I went to the store when it was cool, he waited in my truck until I returned.  Buddy never complained about waiting on me.  He never got in a hurry.  I should be more like that with respect to God and those I love.

 Buddy has his own book, Buddy the Floppy Ear Corgi, on Amazon that tells how he was rescued off the streets and how he learned to love himself and others just the way God made them.  Free eBook Aug 29-Sept.2.