One of my favorite Guideposts’ stories is the one about a boxer named Bull Dog who got a second chance at a loving home. His first home was in a junk yard and, as Sam Adams described it, anything but loving.
“There was a run-down shack and in the doorway, a portly man grimaced. Then I spotted something: a black-masked boxer bulldog chained to the bumper of a rusty old junker, barking nastily. “Oh, shut up, would ya!” the man hollered at him.
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Right off my hackles got up. I could see that the dog was nothing but skin and bones. Where was his water bowl? His food? Not even a ratty pallet to lie on. How could anyone treat a dog that way?”
Fortunately, Sam stepped in and took that dog away to live with him, where he showered Bull Dog with the love and affection every dog deserves.
This week is Animal Welfare Week, and I find myself thinking of Bull Dog and how he’d been mistreated.
How could anyone disrespect the lives and feelings of the beautiful creatures God put on this earth? Especially when these animals show the kind of love for us that Bull Dog demonstrated, later when Sam brought him along on a trip back to the junkyard (where Sam was searching for an old car part.) The abusive former-owner walked up to the car.
“He rested his big hand on the open window frame. Bull Dog locked his eyes on it, and leaned forward. Oh, he’s gonna let him have it! I thought, waiting for Bull Dog to launch. I oughta let him get his due, let him have a piece of this old boy.
“I could hardly believe what happened next. Gently, forgivingly, Bull Dog inclined his head and licked his abuser’s hand.”
If animals can have such a pure and loving hearts, isn’t it up to us to do the same? God put the animals here in our care. A good and moral person treats animals with kindness.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)
