Puppy Love

Puppy Love

On the lighter side, at work this week, a cute little puppy was found by our receptionist and office manager walking in the street in front of our office… In order to protect him from traffic, he was brought in to our showroom. We tried to find out who he belonged to for the whole day. I and everyone in our business took an immediate liking to him, however, I knew the TROUBLE he would present…
Dogs are not like cats… Cats can take care of themselves… They are perhaps ambivalent about this subject of LOVE. They can be trained to use litter boxes… Dogs mostly need to be walked outside for their needs periodically at all hours of the day and night… TROUBLE…. I knew it….
Our office manager also took an immediate liking to the puppy, probably because the puppy was “so cute” and gave us his unconditional love… I liked him too, but knew a dog’s place is outside, not in a kitchen and bath showroom. Everyone else liked the dog… I just knew, if we could not find his owner, he would have to be walked, so I went to purchase a leash to keep him under control, spending $20.
I went to get lunch for some of us, and, as it turned out, WE FED THE PUPPY from our store bought lunch, knowing all along that would be a mistake… We knew he would use the bathroom on our showroom floor, which he did, but our office manager (who would not want her name to be shared), faithfully cleaned it up.. He did… She did…
After nearly the whole day of trying to find out who the puppy belonged to, and I did my best to help find out, little was done at work except for everyone to share in love for the puppy and him for us… Late in the day it was discovered that the puppy belonged to a neighbor across the street, who was at work. We returned the puppy. Case closed, right? Really? After all, the thankful owner locked the puppy up on his back porch so he could not escape…
Well……
Next day, right about lunch time, I was just outside the door and across the street, while his master was at work, trotted the puppy, on all fours, coming over for lunch with us…. We again welcomed him in, so he would not be run over by a terrible vehicle. Our office manager was very happy to see him again, being he had previously offered such unconditional love to us… The owner was away at work again, so we kept him most of the rest of the day… The owner sent food via a friend and a puppy cage, into which we just did not have the heart to put him… He took leaks on the floor, and things like that, and our office manager faithfully cleaned it all up…
One time he got under my feet without my knowing it, and I stepped on his foot, reminding me of the rat upon, sat upon, spat upon, I recently wrote of, the ones Jesus spoke of in the sermon on the mount. Maybe puppies were there listening too…. He screeched out and limped off, but just a little while later, HE LOVED ME AGAIN, ANYWAY…
I got to thinking, what is it that is designed into these puppy things? Is it unconditional love? Would we, as humans, be better to learn something from it? What if we happen to be helpless, like the puppy, if we belong to no one, no family, no church, no country, will we be loved unconditionally? Will we love others unconditionally? What is it about this unconditional love, anyway, that seems to be so attractive and such an integral part of our psyche, at least an awareness of it, whether we have it, get it, or do it? Also, what about this feeding thing, that seems to bring these unconditional lovers back to us again, at least around lunch time? It seems we all naturally just stop everything we are doing and admire it, if it is a puppy, or a baby in a mother’s arms, even our supposed enemy’s baby, that coos and smiles at us, and we offer our love and respect in return…. Also, when we hurt the unconditional lover, they just love us anyway….
Could this even be a key to our worldwide problems? this unconditional love thing, puppy love… I went to lunch today with one of my Iranian friends… I forgot to ask him… Do they have puppies in Iran? Do they have cooing babies in Iran? I think they do… Why don’t we exhaust all means, as the theory of “just” war tells us, and go over there and take a puppy to lunch, or hold a cooing baby, and them to us, and to Israel, and everywhere, for that matter? I know it is so naive to be thinking like this, (and less profitable to the military industrial complexes), or to think that God would love us unconditionally, just like this, or that we should feed our own food, under the table, to helpless, homeless people whom, we might believe, know nothing of God… Really?
What if God is watching you through the eyes of this puppy, this baby, or the one you think is your enemy, as you step upon him, set upon him, spat upon him, rat upon him, or, let us be frank, kill him and urinate upon him? Could God be watching…. to see what we will do…? All of this, just on the lighter side, without benefit of Scriptural proof texting, after all, it is just puppy love… Or is it?

Love, Grace, Peace,

John Cooper
http://tuscaloosacirclesofpeace.blogspot.com/