If you spell God backwards you get...dog!

We have two dogs, we lost a great cat about a year ago. We have a male rat terrier named Maxwell and a female Shitzu named Molly.  Molly is an actual Champion, but what that means I don't know. She was a show dog!

My wife got Molly when she, my wife,  was looking for a dog for her son, (now my step-son) and she heard of a lady who raised show dogs. The lady just happened to have a heart attack and her family was trying to place her dogs.  My wife took Molly. She is a lovable quiet dog who lays around, except when she goes out to pee.  I can always tell when she has done her number 2 business, because she runs back to me with great excitement. As if to say, "I have done it again."

Maxwell or Max as we call him is a rat terrier and he is one loyal, but usually scared dog.  We don't know why but if he hears a beep from anything, like a fire alarm, he gets up from wherever he is and hides in the closet. Thunder will do that to them both.  We have never scared him with anything.

When I grew up, I had an Irish setter, but he really wan't my dog, he was a family dog and he was kept on a chain in the back yard. He would go on hikes with my brother Geoff and I though, with no chain.

  We found him or he found us by sitting at an automatic egg machine that the chicken farm had across the road from us.  It was summer and we think he was looking for some shade.  We took him in. He was a well behaved dog. We thought he was someone's bird dog, because he was so well behaved and he always stayed with us when we went on hikes.  We named him Brownie, but like I said I didn't think of him as mine, but then I never thought I really owned anything in our family. We were a family and families share everything.
I mention this because I didn't have a close relationship with him. He was usually out of sight and out of mind in the backyard.  I don't agree with this practice now.

We did get a second Irish Setter when Brownie died. I believe my folks had him put down because of some complications with cancer. The next setter we got we bought and she was the runt of the  litter. Her name was  Ginger and she was very high strung, but then most puppies are.

When we moved from PA to NJ,  my sister, my  brother Geoff and I traveled with my Dad in the station wagon. Ginger road in the back. I don't remember why she would not settle down, (she probably had to go to the bath room) but my Dad stopped the car and he was angry. Because we kept telling Ginger to settle down, I assume making a continuous complaining noise in the car, Dad took it out on Ginger. He hit her several times.  I felt terrible about that and can still remember the hitting.  Puppies and especially Irish Setters are high strung...

Back to Max and Molly. I love them both. Molly is attached to my wife and we understand it is a trait of the dog to attach themselves to the first person they meet. This is why my wife got Max, she wanted a dog for her son.  Max is so lovable and I just enjoy him tremendously.

 I have lost my temper with him a couple of times and jerked him around in his halter.  I don't like that part of me, it is an anger that just spills out when he is being stubborned.  Does that anger sound familiar. It is rare with me, but it has happened a couple of times. I am sorry for it too.

Max has always forgiven me and loved me again. This is where I started thinking that maybe our dogs are God.  I think a dog lover would understand this, but I am not suggesting a new sect of religion.

They love us always, the forgive us always and are always excited to see us, even if we just went our the door and had to run back in to get something we forgot.  In all fairness, the cats I have had in my life we like that. They always were glad to see me and they waited for me to come home.  But they never sat with me, in my lap.

Dogs require walking, which at first I found to be a burden, because I never had to walk my cats.  But no they are my friends and I enjoy the time alone with them. I actually walk with them or they walk me. I do an early walk at 6:30 AM and I do the evening walk, 10:00 PM with two in between, which usually my wife does, though I also go on most of those too.

With us both being unemployed, (remember that is why I blog now) the walks give us time out of the house and time to be with each other and our dogs.  If you don't have a dog, consider getting one. They are a friend and like I said you may find some similarities to the teachings of what God is like.

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