I'm having an anticipatory "senior's moment." I write blog ideas on slips of paper, and on the notepad of my smart phone. The trouble is, my phone may be smarter than I am, and I'm not always sure if I have already blogged about the specific note. In my feeble defense, I have now completed nearly 2100 Lion Lamb blog entries, as well as just shy of a hundred Groundling entries.
I was talking the other day with sister-in-law Martha about the emotional lives of animals, the creatures we once assumed had no "real" emotions, like humans. I checked my phone notes to find Tommy, the Italian German Shepherd. Sounds confusing, doesn't it, an Italian German Shepherd ? I made the note back in January about this dog whose mistress sadly died in her fifties and was buried from the local Roman Catholic church. Tommy began to attend the church after she died, as you can see in the photo. He comes in, lies down, and waits patiently to the end of the service.
His connection with this place of worship is remarkable. He is obviously waiting for his "owner" to return. Also remarkable is the kindness and understanding of the priest, and the church members, who feel that as long as Tommy is a well-behaved congregant he is welcome.
Even if you have read about this before, isn't this is touching story? I'm sure Christ is present, giving this pooch a pat on the head. Does it give you "cause for paws" (couldn't help myself) about the emotional life of God's creatures, other than humans?
3 comments:
It truly amazes me, the love an amimal has for their "owners". I believe absolutely that pets can exhibit true and unadulterated emotion, 99% of the time through unconditional love.
I love this story... and I do believe animals have emotions and feelings - they just can't express them in our language - and we are too busy to try to understand theirs - my dog, Tillie the Terrible (so named for good reason, by the way...) was a God - send to me after my husband died - sadly, Tillie is now gone as well ... and I miss her, bad habits and all!
Having recently "adopted" my Dad's dog following his death, we witnessed the grief of Molly, the chocolate lab who for the first weeks lay expectantly with her eyes on the front door, not joining in with the family, as she had when she visited with Dad. Undoubtedly she was grieving.
And interestingly the extra attention we offer to her in her grief is a healing activity for our own grief.
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