Why God made a Dog

June 2009 Walnut Creek Open Space

 I first posted the poem "Why God made Dogs" in June 2009 when Chloe was 18 months old and Bailey was just 12 months old.  Now 4 and 1/2 years later, in the same spot, I took some new pictures. 

 I just love these dogs.

http://redbirddog.blogspot.com/2009/06/why-god-made-dogs.html

 

 When God had made the Earth and Sky, the flowers and the trees,

He then made all the animals, and all the birds and bees.

 And when His work was finished, not one was quite the same,

He said, "I'll walk the Earth of mine, and give each one a name."

 And so He traveled land and sea, and everywhere He went,

a little creature followed Him, until it's strength was spent.

 When all were named upon the Earth,

and in the sky and sea, the little creature said,

 

"Dear Lord, there's not one left for me."

 The Father smiled and softly said, "I've left you 'til the end,

I've turned my name from back to front, and called you DOG, my friend."

Vizslas Are Not Children

Chloe and I were walking the hills early yesterday morning.  We had wandered far away from people, houses, cars, and all other modern noises.  After about an hour I started to feel "in touch with the spirit of the West." 

Dogs and men have had a colorful and interesting history in the western part of the United States over the last 150 years as written about by authors such as Oakland native, Jack London.

B17 bomber and Bailey, a Hungarian Vizsla, over

 The Diablo Valley

Jack London's book, "Call of the Wild" is a wonderful book on the relationships dogs, men and nature had at the turn of the twentieth century in the Wild West. 

 In one section of the book, Buck (key dog character) had come to live with the tribe of native Indians in the interior of Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush.  Jack London explains how Buck and his Indian masters related very differently then Buck had with his American and Canadian masters. 

In the book, London describes the relationship between dog and Indian as not that of child and parent or dog and master, but of dog and deity.

This relationship, of course, is quite different. Many modern ideas of God's relationship with man is to let man make mistakes and live our lives, but to "look over us and guide us." 

The Evolution of God (Back Bay Readers' Pick)

The fellowship is more of the dog and his benevolent "god" as a partner in existing with nature.

On the bluffs over the Pacific south of San Francisco

Now at the beginning of the twenty-first century, a modern book was written by author, Ted Keasote, that has a rather similar view of a dog's interaction with man. 

The author tells the tell of finding Merle (main dog character) in the desert wilderness of Utah along a river at 10 months old.

  He then goes on to tell of a life-long relationship (dog's life) compared to the relationship an Alaskan Indian and his dog over 100 years ago. 

Mr. Keasote does not make this comparison in his book, but as I read his words and the author's bond with his dog, I drew that comparison. 

Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog

Very entertaining and enlightening reading on how we can relate to "our best friend."