Danielle and I have always been what you might call "animal people." That doesn't mean that we act like animals (any more than anyone else) but that we see the value of having animals as a part of our daily lives. Danielle grew up with cats and I grew up with cats, dogs, and an occasional guinea pig and fish. We knew we wanted animals to be a part of our family as well, so just a couple of days after we returned from our honeymoon we went to the local Humane Society and adopted two cats. We only went in for one but she and I fell in love with two different felines and they made us a "two-for-one" deal. Those cats were Romy (an orange tabby) and Jackson (a brown longhair). They lived with us in our tiny apartment in Stillwater, Oklahoma and then in our duplex in Guthrie and then in our minuscule apartment in Austin, Texas.
While we were in Austin we brought in a testy little seven-year-old dog one step away from being euthanized, a terrier mix named Luke. Then we had a baby (Wyatt) just before we moved to Newkirk, Oklahoma. All three animals (and the kid) did quite well with us there and then made the next move to Norman, Oklahoma. Then we had Josselyn. So we had two kids and three animals in our 1,000 square foot house and we did just fine. The dog was a bit of a wildcard, but the cats pretty much kept to themselves (what I like about cats). This is the family that moved into the manse here in Washington Court House, Ohio.
As I have written about previously and feel no need to dwell on again, two days after we moved here just after Christmas, 2011, I had to put Luke to sleep. He was old, pretty much blind and deaf, having hip problems, and pretty much incontinent. Later that same year Danielle had to put her cat Jackson to sleep. He'd been with us for eleven years. He had diabetes and he wasn't responding to insulin. He had become incontinent as well. That was a rough year. But Romy (my orange tabby) is still with us. We have had him for almost fourteen years, which makes him about fifteen years old. He seems perfectly healthy and sleeps pretty much every night in bed with Josselyn. The other day, Josselyn woke up with Romy next to her and said, "Daddy, Romy is soft like a koala bear." He is a good cat and as many of you know he is my sidekick when it comes to battling bats. Much to Romy's chagrin, however, over the past couple of years we have filled the vacancies left by Luke and Jackson instead of just eliminating those positions.
Eli, our huge yellow lab, came in February, 2012. He is a great dog. Many of you know him personally. He comes to work with me a lot of days and sleeps on the couch in my office. A couple of years ago we got Wyatt a beta fish because we heard they were almost impossible to kill. Well, we specialize in making the impossible possible so somehow we ended up having to flush it down the toilet. We replaced it with several "molly" fish, most of which died fairly quickly. One, named OJ, survived for almost a year and then got a swim bladder infection, which means he couldn't stay afloat anymore, so we had to put him out of his misery as well.
A couple of months ago a really friendly cat started hanging out on our porch. Of course, I ended up feeding him (Josselyn and I are the softies in our house) and he won us over so much that I gave him the name Juniper (after one of St. Francis's most beloved friars) and I took him to the vet to be vaccinated and de-flead. We brought him into the house in hopes of incorporating him into the family. Romy will love him just like he loved Jackson! Not so much. Romy had no interest in sharing his cat kingdom and Juniper started to spray in hopes of carving out some territory for himself. Eventually we decided that Juniper was going to be our porch cat instead of an inside cat. He stuck around for two days and then another cat chased him off. We haven't seen Juniper in more than a month. Hopefully he's okay.
Well, you would think that we would just leave well enough alone but then we ended up meeting a little Lab/corgi puppy that won us over with her cuteness. We adopted her from the Humane Society via a friend and named her Daisy. She is three months old and absolutely loves her big brother Eli (she looks like a miniature version of him) and even gets along with Romy, although Eli and Romy have never made peace. As a puppy she is a lot of fun but a lot of work too. She's a real hoot.
Why am I sharing this? Well, I'm sharing it because with the addition of Daisy, life with animals is on my mind. There are advantages and disadvantages to it. The disadvantages I have experienced are that pets are expensive (food and vet bills), they make it difficult for us to go away on vacation (who's going to watch two dogs and a cat for ten days?), and they are constantly shedding and occasionally barfing on the floor. I understand why some people just choose not to have pets. However, we as a family have decided that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Having pets allows us to give homes to animals in need (if not us, who?), to teach our kids responsibility (did you feed the dog?), and more than anything to experience the unique love that animals offer to us and receive from us. In addition, having pets gives kids practice in grieving. My kids grieved for Luke and Jackson. Josselyn grieved that Juniper disappeared. They need that practice. You don't want a human's death to be your kid's first experience of grief. That can be overwhelming if they've never had a taste of it before. Overall, we feel that we are a more complete family with pets and that we are raising more responsible and more compassionate children because we have pets. I believe that caring about animals helps us to care more about human beings as well. I really think there is a connection between the two.
No matter what you believe about the mechanics of how the world was created and whether or not it (and we) have evolved, the meaning of the Genesis accounts are the same. God didn't have to create, but God did. It wasn't an accident of the gods as other nations were saying. God created everything good, not evil as other cultures were telling the Israelites. And that God put us in charge of creation (to a certain extent) and we, of course, messed the whole thing up. What doesn't change, however, is that we are still supposed to be stewards or caretakers of creation rather than exploiting and dominating it. I recognize that my having two dogs and a cat is not going to save the tigers, rhinos, or polar bears. What it does do, however, is remind me that creation includes more than just me and more than just human beings. I am reminded everyday that God can be experienced in a purring cat and a fetching dog in addition to being experienced in a worship service (notice that I said in addition to worship rather than instead of). My experience has been that usually (not always) animal people tend to be kinder and more generous folks in general. They have been taught that by God's other creatures.
If you don't have pets and you can't for some reason or another and you want a little taste every now and then of life with critters, come by the manse and my pets will teach you some things. There is no better way to learn to quit being so full of yourself than to scoop poop or clean out a cat box. A puppy lying with her belly face up will make you stop for a second to experience love instead of busyness. Walking a 105 pound dog who has never been trained is a stellar cardiovascular workout. And hearing the purring of a cat in your ear on a cold, snowy morning is like a winter lullaby, singing to you, "Don't get out of bed yet. School is closed anyway. Just stay here."
I hope you have a great week. Pet your furry friends for me.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Everett
