The Puppy Nessie Found Home

Nessie came home.

In the midst of the pandemic, we realized we were ready to get another dog. We missed, even the cat Athena may have missed, a canine companion. What to do?

We are not fancy dog owners looking to show or breed. Nothing wrong with those excellent hobbies or jobs, but we just wanted a dog to walk, pet, and with whom to carry on endless conversations. As a result, we found a wonderful lady who fosters dogs that have been dropped off at a shelter. This kind soul trains them and gets them ready for a “forever home.” There was (the soon to be named) Nessie, an alleged boxer/Labrador mix.

Maybe.

She had come to the shelter after being abandoned with mange and other health issues. The good people, and this is God’s work, helped her get better. The only “bad” behavior we have seen so far is that she does not like to be left alone. She loves loving us, all of us, and everything around her is an excuse to curl up with a human and sleep. When outside she gambols, a motion I used to associate with lambs, but now with Nessie.

This is the point where Nessie and her life could become an image for some deeper truth, but this is not that day. Instead, this fellow animal was rescued and came to our home where she is already a jolly member of our household. This is good enough. Creation is supposed to work that way and did. She is not more than an animal, not being human, but she is not less. As a creature she is part of the world God designed and so our duty is to be kind, provide care, and live as harmoniously as possible.

That is true of the chickens in the garden and even of the predator animals, hawks, feral cats, Texas critters of all sorts. What used to be called “dumb brutes” deserve decency. No gentleman or lady would torture or brutalize such creatures. They have their place and even if they must be stopped, say the rats, we can do so humanely, because we are human. They do not know better, but we do. We can love the dumb brutes, elevate them by this love, and also respect the places God has given them. This is not sentimental, but harks back to our first jobs tending the garden of God, naming the beasts, and living in harmony with the good creation. Things are broken, misplaced, so all is haywire, but a Christian gentlemen might swat a fly, yet never pull the wings off for fun.

And the higher animals, the ones most like us in the created order, can be elevated by the affection they show and the love we can give. We do not enslave them, but live with them. Athena, a cat of fearsome history, earned her keep battling back predators for us. Animals without rational souls can check other such animals in ways we could not. That is a role they play in the divine economy. Athena is arthritic at eighteen, and a bit cranky, but the old lady can still run and stalk a lizard. They usually get away. Nessie and Athena are finding their places in the household economy and she has cried a bit less now that this loving, fascinating creature Nessie has come.

This dog Nessie is a good dog. Athena is a cranky cat. We are humans doing the best we can. All is well at Saint Anne’s on No Hill Whatsoever as all the humans and other animals find their place. Love is the glue.

Even a pandemic time has some good. Created in the image of God, we have the ability to do good, create something better. Poor Nessie was lost and now she’s found. She had mange, now she is healthy. That is enough for quite a few days.