The Dog That Bites

My wife and I consider ourselves true animal lovers. We have five dogs, three of whom we generally share a bed with every night. A good example of our love for our dogs is when I spend an evening in the office writing and then I decide to go to bed and there’s not any room for me to lay down.

I have to wake the wife up and tell her to take her glasses off, turn over, move over or turn around straight on the bed, tell one of the little dogs to move over, get the big dog to the foot instead of the middle of the bed. Then and only then I can lay down and fight for cover until I’m asleep.

It’s not that way every night but every once in a while. You know what it’s like to try to get an eighty pound dog to move over much less to get cover out from under her when she’s asleep?

Then there’s our other dogs, those two that stay outside. When it’s real hot outside my wife may let them come into the mudroom and lay down for the afternoon to cool off. When its real cold outside in the wintertime and the temperature gets at freezing or below we’ll let them in for the night. They are good dogs, they love to play and they have a lot of energy to burn.

One of them loves to, what we call “roughhouse”, while the other one likes to play fetch. I can throw a ball in the yard and one will go and fetch it while the other tries to keep him from getting to it. Even though their character and their looks are as different as night and day, they stay close by each other. But because of their character they have gotten mad at each other and I’ve had more than my fair share of breaking up fights between them. I’ll keep them separated to give them time to cool off and then by nightfall they’re both whining wanting the other and all is good. People are shocked when we tell them they are brothers born on the same day and came from the same litter. Since they have been together since birth my wife and I both think it would be hard on either of them if we had to separate them permanently.

One cold winter day I got up early to let them out. One of them usually scratches on the door when he’s ready to go out and the other just waits until we open it before he runs out. Well on this particular day neither one of them wanted to go out and I didn’t want them to stay in. I played with them and petted them.  I opened the door to let them out and they both sat down. The sun was shining bright it was warming up and even though the night had gotten below freezing, the day was looking beautiful. When neither of them made a move for the door I would try my best to coerce them out, they still didn’t move. I grabbed one by the collar and he pulled against me. I nudged him out and by the time I was going for the other he was coming back in. I grabbed the other hoping one or the other would take the initiative and the other would follow, but nothing from either one.

It was when I began to be a little more forceful to get them out was when one of them growled at me showing me his teeth. When he done that the other followed suit and did the same thing. Naturally, I didn’t want to get bit by either one of them, or both and I could have gotten real mean and ugly toward them but I didn’t. I sat down on the step and gently called them both over to me. I petted them, played with them a few minutes and left them alone in the mudroom and a couple of hours later I checked on them again to which they both wanted to go outside by then.

Every day I come in from work my dogs are there and are happy to see me, and I am happy to see them. They are a great stress reliever after a hard, aggravating day. They certainly help to take my mind off anything that may have been bothering me.

I often think about that day my dogs almost turned on me. I thought about all those animals that are living in abusive homes or in abusive situations. A dog’s character is a lot like that of humans. They/We can only take so much before they/we turn. Some may leave, some may stay and fight. Either way it’s never good. In the end someone will wound up getting hurt. And that’s the last thing I would want to do is to hurt something that brings me so much joy each and every day or for them to hurt me for that matter.

If we feel that way toward animals how come we can’t feel that way toward others? People always say that so-and-so hurt my feelings so I’m not going to have anything else to do with them. Maybe they were having a bad day. Maybe you were having a bad day. Maybe something was said out of context without any intentions of hurting anyone. Dogs don’t have to stop and think because they can’t talk, but we do. We should guard our conversation. The bible tell us to let our ‘Yes’ be yes and our ‘No’s’ be no. (Matthew 5:37)

Sometime people are pushed too far, too much. I have seen it way too many times in life and I’m sure you have too of where someone had gotten fed up with someone else’s antics. You can look it up everyday on Youtube or see it on Facebook or some other media outlet of where someone was pushed just a little too far. You hear it on the news. I have seen way too many good, hardworking, honest people leave a company simply because their buttons were pushed one too many times.

You and I both have seen it where a spouse was pushed too much and then they push back or up and leave and then the one who started it plays the victim. That seems the norm for society today.

The bible told us this day was coming. 'Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!' (Isaiah 5:20, 21 KJV)