Does God Care About Our Pets?

Sophie at Cracker Creek in NE Oregon

My husband Greg told me that he had heard years ago that it didn’t do any good to pray for, or about dogs. I doubted that statement, because I believed that God cared about every concern that we’ve expressed to Him.

Over the last twenty-five years we’ve had a large dog. Two purebred German shepherds, one malamute and German shepherd mix and another German shepherd mix. I had been enamored with German shepherds, Greg on the other hand wanted a golden retriever but he settled for the German shepherds too.

Presently we had the malamute mix and a small Pomeranian mix, both well-behaved. Our retirement life was good with our two delightful dogs, making us a family of four.

Without warning, our malamute mix died of either a heart attack or blood clot. Believe me, we all felt the loss.

We decided we wanted our family of four back and searched the ads and shelters for another dog to rehome. Puppies came with high price tags. If you found one for a thousand dollars, that was a good deal. A puppy for us may not have been the very best idea anyway.

At the two shelters we visited we found lots of cats and pit bulls (which are fine for others), or dogs with a high energy warning label. Also, with the pandemic in full force it seemed that dogs to adopt were somewhat limited.

Finally, we found a sixty-pound male that wasn’t listed as a high energy dog only that he’d lived outside for two years. We adopted him, brought him home and all hell broke loose, to put it lightly. For a dog that lived outside he instantly went for that favorite chair, couch, or our bed to lay in and we wanted a dog that didn’t live on the furniture. While not fighting to get on the furniture, he was busy disturbing what he could every minute with his unbelievable nervous energy. Outside, he constantly looked for a way out of the fence. Did I mention that I couldn’t leave him to go to the bathroom?

Now, this was no fault of the shelter, they tried to explain what a new dog would go through, and we thought we understood but we had made an error in choosing this dog. I took him back and on the way home I cried rare tears that we couldn’t help this dog. Perhaps as seniors we’d never be able to have a large dog again. As a matter of fact, we’d pretty much resigned ourselves of finding another dog that would suit us. We both expressed that we didn’t think that we’d find a match unless we heard of a dog that needed rehoming from a friend, yet that type of request seemed rare these days.

The next day, we got a call from my son. Since our dog died would we like to have their five-year-old Golden Retriever? He had three dogs and rabbits, and not enough space for a large dog to run.  What? The kind of dog that Greg always wanted and a good gentle dog to boot? It didn’t take long for us to decide to welcome Sophie Rose to our household.

So, does God care about our dogs? Well, they certainly seem to be one of His greatest gifts to man. Ask any dog owner if that could be true, and you’ll get a nodding head in return. I think God cared about what we were going through and the fact that I expressed my sadness to Him. After all the Bible does say to pray about everything. So, yes I believe that God cares about your pets.

Sophie Running at the Mining Ghost Town of Bourne in NE Oregon