Mother Dogs and Men Who Cry

Mother Dogs and Men Who Cry

We had a mother dog come in our showroom door this week… She had broken loose from her wire like leash obviously to search for food…. She was a dog with a pleasant disposition, although obviously in need on food… Her rib bones where protruding through her skin and her breasts were partially full of milk, as much as could be supplied from her body fat….. Not much fat was left on her…

Wink, my wife, came in to my office crying, saying “there is a dog out here.” You may have heard the puppy stories before… I went out to find the mother dog with her nose to the ground trotting back and forth all over the place, into the back shop, etc. I thought she might be thirsty so I garnered a bucket, put some water in it and offered it to her… She refused the water, but vigorously liked my hands in an appreciative manner and ran back to the showroom where she tipped over Wink’s trash can that had some wrappings from a Jimmie John’s sandwich and tried to open the empty crushed up paperwork. Wink was crying and I began to realize what was really going on…. “It just isn’t right,” Wink whimpered, as she cried with tears streaming down her cheek.

I took out $20 and asked David Jones to go to the Dollar store and purchase some dog food. While he was doing that, I pursued the dog who left the showroom, who ran to a house across the street with her nose to the ground, and I momentarily lost her as she ran around the neighborhood… I checked with the neighbor across the street, whom Wink said had some puppies, but they said it was not their dog… then I saw her, a block away, not far from a lot upon which a policeman had been shot and killed a few years ago… I went to catch her so we could feed her, but she ran up under the crawl space of another house looking for food… I called Flannigan, a truck driver who lives next door to the house asking if this dog belonged to the neighbor. He said it did not, but it belonged to the house next to the lot I knew the policeman had been shot and killed on.

About that time, the mother dog came out licking my hands and I captured her short leash and began to lead her back to our shop to feed her. Then the Animal Control truck wheeled around the corner… Wink had called 311 and the Animal Control Center responded quickly. David came up with the dog food, and I told them the dog was hungry and needed to eat. They advised not to feed her because she would just throw up in their truck… They put her in the truck and they were going to carry her off and I offered the bag of food to them to take with them, but objected that the mother dog had puppies somewhere and the puppies would die if they took the mother dog away… The Control Men began to realize the seriousness of the situation and we all began to search nearby houses…. There was a Pit Bull dog on a heavy chain in the back of one house, barking and lunging at his chain… “He is just a breeder,” the Control Men said, but they saw a dog house just out of reach of the lunging Pit Bull’s chain and went to get a long metal stick with a lasso on it to catch the pit bull it he broke loose… One of them went to the dog house while the other one and I watched close by, keeping our eyes peeled for the Pit Bull… “There are five puppies!) he exclaimed…

The Control Men then got the Mother dog out of the truck, and put a long leash on her collar as I scurried to get an empty and dry dog food bowl from the back yard. I opened the dog food sack David had brought to me and poured out some into the bowl and the Mother Dog desperately gulped up the dog food…. “She isn’t protective of her food,” one of the Control Men said, as I put my hands close to the food in the bowl as the Mother Dog lapped and chewed the food and I poured more out for her as tears dropped from my eyes..… I asked the Control Men how much to give, knowing that one should give only a limited amount to a starving animal, and they told me. I put the rest at the door of the house where apparently no one was home, and left my business card on the door for those who lived there….

We took the Mother Dog to the doghouse and the Control Men said the dog house should have a wood floor, and the puppies should not be on the ground… I told them I had wood, if they needed it, (in our cabinet shop)The little puppies where so happy to see their mother, and vice versa…. In the meantime, Wink had called me at least a couple of times to see what was happening… I went back to briefly tell her what happened, and I am writing in more detail now…. “It just isn’t right,” she murmured as she cried…

After work, I did my regular things, having some popcorn and drinks as I checked my personal email…. One of my Sisters called me, and we talked at length about some family difficulties we are suffering, (about someone we love who is suing the family) and I left work about 7:30, before dusk and saw a whole bunch of new and shiny cars around the house where the Mother Dog lives…. Some of the cars were driven up in the yard, so I stopped at the intersection and took a picture of the scene with the new and shiny cars… I thought to myself, … If the resident’s friends have new and shiny cars, why can’t they afford dog food? So, I drove up in my Avalanche in the yard too, and walked to the back of the house to see the Mother Dog…. The Pit Bull did not make that much of a ruckus, since apparently he knows me a little bit, since our face to face meeting earlier in the day…. Soon the residents came out of the house, the man of the house first… I introduced myself, asking him his name, shaking his hand… He told me he had the dog food and had my business card… I explained how the Mother Dog had gotten loose, and a much shorter version of the story above. He said he worked at Burger King. I told him if he was at work, and that since the dog was apparently starving, since our business was so close, I could come and feed the dog in the middle of the day…. He seemed appreciative, and a little girl, about two years old came out of the house in front of apparently her Mother. I offered my index finger to the little girl, she grasped it; I asked her name, and I listened closely with my hearing aid ear to her name, and nodded to her Mother… We ended the conversation on an amicable note, and I told them that the Animal Control Men were to come to see them the next day to help them keep better care of the Mother Dog, telling them, for instance, that the Mother Dog would need food with more protein while she was nursing…

I drove across the lawn in my pick up, the tires slipping a little bit, since they are slick and are in need of replacing, to the yard of Flannigan, to whom I sold our GMC-White truck tractor on terms… “They just don’t need things like that if they can’t take care of them.” Flannigan said…… After that conversation, I began driving home, crying along the way…. At a couple of points, I pulled doff the road to weep and cry… “It just isn’t right.” I muttered, as Wink had cried also…..

 
Let me clue you in on this…. All the above is written with multiple meanings in mind. The Book of Revelation, or Apocalypse, is written this way… This means there is more to it more than you may imagine at first reading….. For a glimpse of what I mean, check out http://sojo.net/blogs/2013/04/30/apocalypse-now/.

The story I tell is true… I have witnesses that it is true, but I will only partially explain a couple of things…. Other meanings of this story may become evident…. At a later time….

First,
Some men cry….
I am a man…
I cry… I cry often…
John 11:35
35 Jesus wept . (Over Lazurus)
NIV

 
I can imagine the anguish Jesus had:
Luke 13:34-14:1
34 “O Jerusalem , Jerusalem , you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 35 Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'”
NIV

 
And Nehemiah:
Neh 1:3-5
3 They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”
4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept . For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. 5 Then I said:
NIV

 
And Esau, and Jacob, and Joseph, and the people of Israel, many times, and David, and Kings, just for a few… They wept too….
Real men cry….

 
Back to Mother Dog and puppies… I told Wink and David later that It is just not right, and even worse that it is just not right that in addition to animals, human beings are in the same condition, starving to death too, while we spend enormous funds on the military and killing people… Flesh and blood people whom we mistakenly believe to be our real enemies.

Even the amount we spend on Drones could be put to better use. The amount we spend on sanctions against Iran….. Would that be better spent sending peace delegations, even Civilian Peace Delegations to just drive up on Iranian officials lawns and talk to them? I have asked before… I have asked “high” officials such things…. No response… Dead silence….

Ancient walls such as Nehemiah wept over were walls for the protection of the city of Jerusalem… A Christian is called to be a citizen of a different Kingdom, of a New Jerusalem, one whose light is of a God who cries for us, and runs after us, and whose mayor is a God who pursues us. It is a city whose gates are never closed… Always open….. A Christian is to bear the Armor of God, and have feet shed in the Gospel of Peace…. The Gospel of Peace, another idea just about completely rejected in most of Christianity… Bring that idea up one day. I imagine you will find no response, dead silence…. Other elements of the Armor of God mentioned below are:

 
Eph 6:10-18
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God , so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
NIV

 
Speaking truth to the powers….
righteousness…
gospel of peace…
shields of faith… (not shields of nuclear warheads)
helmets of salvation, swords of Spirit, prayer, awareness that we are not fighting against flesh and blood… such things along with the Gospel of Peace seem to be sought after, not so much….

 
It just isn’t right that we should spend so much money, time, and energy building up walls of defense, using that armament actually for offense, and pre-emptive warfare, while we shed our lives of the Armor of God and ignore the Gospel of Peace and suffering and hungry humans in so many nations, and our own, and our supposed enemies beautiful mothers and children…

Our enemies are not flesh and blood..

 
“It just isn’t right,” cried Wink… Not for Mother Dogs, certainly not for humans…
Mother dogs and men who weep… Some don’t care so much about that idea either…
Maybe the world would be a better place if we did….

 
Oh, I just saw our neighbor who owns the dog again this morning after I finished this article… He waved, and I we walked to meet each other… I shook his hand, asked how the dog was doing and he said fine… I told him there are some people around concerned… He said the Animal Control people had talked to him and advised him the mother dog while nursing needs more protein, like chicken and stuff…. I was thinking of the Mother Church too, while talking to him… Yes, Christians need more protein too… Solid food, the meat of the Word…

Grace and Peace,

John Cooper
Tuscaloosa, AL