Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Living with Otherwise

Read: Colossians 3:12-17

Many of us have spent almost 9 months staying safe at home 24/7.

One part of that is our 8-year old dog has gotten a lot more “Dave Time” than previously and I have had more “Jax The Dog Time” too.
This togetherness has allowed me to pay more attention to his positive and some negative characteristics.

Let us start with the positives. First, he is GREAT with our three grandchildren (ages 6, 6, and 3). He greets them warmly and allows them to hug, tussle, and order him around with various conflicting commands with no complaints and probably enjoys the attention even if it is confusing. Second, he is a shedding type dog, so although keeping up the vacuuming is important, when he sheds, all smells go with the hair...meaning he never needs a bath (unless rolling in dead fish is involved). Third, he still likes to play, although now for shorter periods of time, and that keeps us laughing and “forced” to play with him. Fourth, he is fantastic judge of human (and dog) character. Intuitively at first meeting he knows who is nice and who is more suspect. For nice humans and dogs, he presents a wag (and for dogs-only a special dog smell). For the suspect ones, standoffish for humans and for dogs a growl (and dog-fights are a no-no). Fifth, he is a “talking dog” with groans, snorts, and various grunting sounds that we re-create and have “conversations” with him. Sixth, he is generally well trained and behaves appropriately most of the time. Finally, for now, he is our security system and is always alert for passersby on all sides of our yard and house.

Ah, here come the negatives......beginning with the last positive, he barks incessantly. We call him Mr. Barks A Lot. Particularly in these COVID times where neighborhood deliveries are constant and each one is considered a danger to his master and mistress. Yes we have a shock collar that can be adjusted for the strength of the correction, but hardly ever use it unless we have a need for absolute silence and are constantly bringing him in from the yard.

As a rescue dog (from Heidi at GP Animal Clinic) he is close to being a small Smooth Coated Collie with a little Australian Shepard thrown in, but he has lopsided Yoda ears. Okay, not much of a negative.

Now that I have been at home so much, finally the other “negative” is that I discovered that he is not very smart. Sure, he has achieved standard training like come, sit, lie down, and shake (paw shaking only if food is involved). Since I had more time, I have tried introducing new tricks or to point out a hidden squirrel or rabbit, but I’m met with blank stares and misdirected looks. His canine bred-in instincts are great and those positive features listed above reflect that fact.

So how does this all fit into our current religious and daily lives? Well, we do not like all the (unnecessary) barking, I can live with floppy ears (they are cute), and not having a smart hunting dog to help put food on the table is no biggie.

So people, support what is right with the world and decide to live nicer with “otherwise.”

Dave DeWitt