NOTE: This week I’m sending a daily devotion based on reflections on Jake the Beagle. Our regular weekly/Monday meditations will resume next week. Hope these are meaningful for you!
All dogs fear thunderstorms, I believe. They will hunker down in a closet or follow you especially closely while it’s thundering and lightning. One dog we had, Tillie, happened to be in our garage during such a storm. For some reason known only to a canine mind, she thought it would be helpful if she climbed onto our car and jumped up and down. So much for the paint job.
However, I’ve never known a dog with as huge a fear factor as Jake.
He was deathly afraid of guns. He would quietly get down from the sofa on which he was lounging and hide if we held anything that even remotely resembled a pistol or rifle.
He was equally afraid of a housefly buzzing around. You would see the alarm and agitation on his face. The same was true with the beeping a smoke detector makes when the batteries are low. This would cause our brave beagle to literally shake with fear.
I don’t think Jake was born with an overactive fear gland. Beagles by nature are hunting dogs and gunfire doesn’t scare them.
Jake must have been a coward because of the home in which he was raised.
We don’t know about early years because he was a rescue dog. It must have been one with a lot of noise and probably some physical abuse. To see a gun, to hear an out of the ordinary noise, triggered something from his past that disrupted his serene snoozing and sent him into a panic.
It’s as if past memories crippled his enjoyment of belly rubs and head scratches in the present. We offered him a home of happiness and safety, yet he was never free from what happened years before.
What does it take to let go of yesterday and live fully today?
There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love. – 1 John 4:18
great memories, greg! my previous dog, nemo, when a storm came, used to go outside and bark, sounding like “shut the f up. trying to sleep down here.”. i loved that.
Love the image of a dog barking back at the storm!
I am enjoying your writings this week about Jake.
Thank you!
Don
Glad you’re enjoying them, Don!
We had a great Labrador Retriever — Wally!! He was a great dog … the ONLY thing he ever barked consistently at was … once a week when the big trash truck would come down the “hill” on the busy street leading into our subdivision he would race to the back door and bark continuously until that trash truck passed our driveway to empty the cans next door. I shared this with my friend, who also was a dog trainer. She just laughed and laughed replying.. ‘He was upset all right!!! They are coming to take “His STUFF” .. Dogs are very protective of their “STUFF” and he was defending, trying to keep it with him. No matter if it was trash or not..it was HIS “STUFF”!!’ I also shared how he would do a low guttural growl every time we passed this greenhouse on our walks and this particular man was out tending the artificial waterfall in front of the store. I would have restrain him, every time that man was there and I wished Wally would stop doing that. Her response was “The man is a “jerk”.. Beware of him! Dogs can smell a “jerk” from a long distance..Just be mindful when your passing .. be polite but KEEP WALKING!” “NO!!’ I responded. Her reply was pretty simple…”Dogs have a 6th sense for danger”. Here is my feeling regarding dogs. Dogs, if you ask me, are a LOT SMARTER than most of my friends.. Just sayen’!! I MISS Wally every day! He was truly my BEST FRIEND!!
Dogs can be incredibly smart, can’t they??? Thanks for sharing your story!
Guess there’s a lot more to dogs than meets the eye! Thanks for sharing.