All Creatures Great and Small

“All creatures great and small; All things bright and beautiful; All things wise and wonderful; The Lord God made them all.”  James Herriot

Randy and I lived about a hundred yards from the church in Snellville. The old parsonage was right on highway 78, and that posed a bit of a problem for us.   Our dog, Chief. What do we do with a 90 pound German Shepherd when we are gone?

We tried the screen porch on the front of the house, but he broke right through.  We tried leaving him in the house, but he chewed all our ratty furniture and any clothes that were lying about.  We tried a running chain leash, but he howled all day and disturbed the neighbors.

In desperation, Randy and a friend built him a huge doghouse for the back yard.  We leashed him on a long chain connected to the house when we were gone, and he seemed totally happy.  We were hardly ever away for very long, so it worked.

He was happy until one Sunday morning.  As I walked the hundred yards to the church on that Sunday, Chief sat outside his doghouse and watched me go. There were a lot of people coming and going, and he was watching it all very contentedly.  Little did I know what he was thinking!

I was sitting in church preparing for the service.  The organ prelude was playing, and the service beginning.  I watched in pride as Randy took his place next to Judd in the pulpit area.   As we began the first congregational hymn, I began to hear a faint howling.  It continued through the song as though singing along.  It seemed to get closer and closer and louder and louder.  I tried to ignore it, but people began to look at me disapprovingly, and Randy kept raising his eyebrows from the pulpit!

It could only be one guilty dog – ours!  I was at the point of running out in shame, when at the conclusion of the hymn, the howling abruptly stopped.  I smiled triumphantly to myself – the dog just loved singing!  I sighed with relief and sat back to enjoy the service.  All went well.

After the benediction,  Judd and Randy walked outside to greet people as they left.   Suddenly, I heard Judd’s booming voice saying as he laughed, “Don’t we wish the rest of our congregation was as eager to join the service as this one?”   Chief was proudly sitting at the church door with his doghouse in tow greeting everyone!

Thank goodness God loves dogs, too!