The most astounding commenter in the universe,
Chip Ahoy, got inspired in yesterday's Lookout Café:
It's known scientifically by k-9 studies that dogs bred for specific purposes over centuries maintain genetic memory and access it daily through their unique dog thought patterns.
They appear to access the memories of previous generations, the ones that lived to reproduce and the ones that contributed their own experiences to the collective memory whenever events are significantly emotionally charged to register and cleve in their dna.
Zeus' excellent thought adventure.
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14 comments:
Astounding indeed.
Boys, dogs, and men are often daydream Walter Mitty's.
I think it should be noted that Chip Ahoy is single-handedly responsible for this year's Word of the Year.
@Meade - This summer take the tennis ball and hold it 6" under water where Zues can just see it. He will stick his head under (nose flaps will close) and grab it. Repeat a few times and them hold it under a foot of water. Repeat again. Within a week Zues will be diving down and retrieving things off the bottom of the lake/pond/pool and will be very proud and having a large time with his new skill...
Oh I just love that. Good boy, Zeus!
Hey Chip-
Did you have to travel to Oxford to receive your award, or do they show up at your door, like Publisher's Clearinghouse?
Chip's level of awesome just increased exponentially. Zeus's too.
Fantastic.
Funny, Chip, awesome
That reminds me of this.
Also this, which is currently the wallpaper on my facebook page.
Doberman with tennis ball just now.
She is not, however, dedicated to the tennis ball. It's a prop, and she's lying about it.
She wants to go out, and has picked up an outdoor toy that she calculates I will be interest in to ask with.
She'll drop it right away once outside and go off and sniff the boundaries of the property, to see what has come and gone over the night, which is her real calling.
Best Chip-mation ever.
We'll be seeing Chip And Zeus' Excellent Adventures on the silver screen soon.
That WAS an excellent adventure. Zeus has a vivid, creative doggy mind.
But what -- no squirrels?
The Perfume
We have a sign which marks the beginning of the restoration of unity in the entire fallen creation. This is the sojourn of Christ in the desert: "He was with the wild beasts, and the angels served Him" (Mk 1:13). The heavenly and earthly creatures destined to become the new creation in the God-Man Jesus Christ are assembled around Him. There is a pointed reference to this restoration in the life of St Isaac of Syria. He wrote that:
The humble man approaches wild animals, and the moment they catch sight of him their ferocity is tamed. They come up and cling to him as their Master, wagging their tails and licking his hands and feet. They scent as coming from him the same fragrance that came from Adam before the transgression, the time when they were gathered together before him and he gave them names in Paradise. This scent was taken away from us, but Christ has renewed it and given it back to us at his coming. It is this which has sweetened the fragrance of humanity.
In other words, the state of likeness to God in Christ to which he had risen enabled him to be with the wild beasts just as Adam was in his naming of them.
This may be the reason why pets are so important to humans. It is a sign of the new creation, of the restoration of kinship between two different parts of creation. With one or two (or more!) animals in the household, it is an icon of both Paradise and of the kingdom of God as each of us are called to name our animals as Adam did, and live in communion with them without fear. This is a way in which it can be said that our pets smell in us the fragrance, or, one might say, the perfume, of Adam before the fall.
To paraphrase Isaiah, when the human can lie down with the cat, or the dog, or the guinea pig, or, God help us, the snake, we aid the advancement of the Kingdom just a little, work to recreate Paradise just a little, and so give new meaning to such menial tasks as cleaning out the litter box.
Robert Flanagan, head librarian at the Camden County Library, Voorhees, NJ, is a member of the Orthodox Church of the Holy Cross, Medford, NJ.
From Jacob's Well
Newspaper of the Diocese of New York and New Jersey
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