Love me!

Look at that face. Do you see sadness? Do you see despair?? Do you see loneliness and loss of hope??

Christmas morning our family of six woke up and put on our warm old clothes and rubber boots and grabbed bags of dog treats, leashes and poop bags and headed toward the animal shelter. That's right, the animal shelter on Christmas morning is where we ended up instead of on the sofa all cuddled up together to open presents. Last year we didn't go but, the year before we spend 6 hours cleaning kennels, watering, feeding and walking dogs. My kids loved it and I know the dogs did too.

This Christmas morning we spent about three hours at the animal shelter and walked over 40 dogs between the six of us. We weren't the only ones there. There were many couples and single persons doing the same thing we were doing and as we walked we talked among ourselves realizing that we came together on this special day to honor the lost and lonely ones.

My heart remains there even after several days have passed. On occasion my children go over there to walk dogs when the homework is scarce. It is their way of giving back to the less fortunate, and dogs can become less fortunate too.

My mind is on the old dogs that have been surrendered by their owners. I am so gentle with all of them but, my heart goes out to those old ones. They aren't as cute as the puppies nor do they show as much "get up and go" as the little ones either. They were once content on a sofa with their special people and for some reason or another they ended up in a steel cage. It's sad to try to imagine what their little minds are thinking. They are scared and lonely for people affection.

So we walked them and sat down and let them crawl onto our lap and snuggle. They don't even know us and they just want to be held and loved. It is an amazing sight to watch them when we arrive at their cage. Their tails start wagging and the love starts overflowing. All they do here on earth is to serve us human beings and in such an amazing loyal way. Then their final destination is a metal cage when we are done with them or drop them off on a highway or farm with hopes that someone will pick them up and care for them.

God serves us daily. He is in our lives daily always ready to love us, serve us and guide us. Some of us befriend him daily and other only use him on occasion when things aren't going quite the way we would like but, God is always ready to step up and love us and help us again, kind of like a dog.

When I look at the dog I see God in their eyes, not only because they are God's creatures but, because they have a heart of Gold. Always loving, always present, always ready to be there for us when needed his abiding love.

It is sad that we dismiss our animals the way we do in this world. It is sad that we take advantage of God's creatures and even dismiss one another. We have become creatures of habit dismissing and choosing what we need when we need it out of the sake of convenience.

When we arrived home that morning the presents didn't seem as important as they did when they were making their wish list. The filled stockings remained filled as we gathered around the table and ate breakfast and talked about our special friends and the moments that we shared with them that morning. Nothing else seemed important.

Our achey backs due to the tugging and pulling on the lease by these excited little animals are a reminder today of the time well spent.

Got a moment, feeling lonely, need a hug? Visit your local animal shelter and let the love begin. Ruff, Ruff