Pretzel

 Twenty-second Friday after Pentecost

Yesterday was a very sad day for Marianne and me. We had our dog Pretzel euthanized. He went quietly and peacefully in Marianne's arms in a vets office here in Manteo. Pretzel suffered from Cushing's Disease, heartworms, and a painful eye ulcer that did not respond to treatment. He was a dachshund, nine years old. 

Pretzel was my first pet. I grew up without any pets. I was 74 years old when we got him. He was a rescue dog. We knew little of his previous history. We wrongly assumed that he was healthy. Our first vet visit revealed that he had heartworms. He contracted Cushing's Disease during the time we had him. We had him for 18 months. 

Pretzel was much more attached to Marianne than to me. He was a good lapdog. He would sit in Marianne's easy chair for hours with her while she read or watched TV. He was very loving and very deeply loved.

Pretzel liked to lick your face. Most humans, including Marianne, don't care for this dog behavior. I liked it. It became something of a bond between Pretzel and me. My favorite memory of Pretzel was in the spring of 2019. Chapel Hill was under a tornado warning. Marianne led Pretzel and me to the innermost closet in the house, where the three of us lay on the closet floor, Pretzel in the middle. It was a scary time for us but great fun for Pretzel. He loved the coziness. He started licking me and wouldn't stop. We started laughing. The more we laughed; the more he licked. When the tornado warning was over, Pretzel was still licking me. He acted as if it were the most fun he had ever had in his life. He had turned our fear into fun. 

Yesterday at the vet's office, he licked me for the last time. We cried last night. We miss the little guy.

The Bible says nothing at all about pets. The ancient Hebrews and the earliest Christians apparently didn't have them. We do read in the Bible a lot about herd animals, especially sheep. The word for cats does not occur in the Bible. Dogs are mentioned, but almost always negatively, as wild and unpredictable creatures.

Do pets go to heaven? I hope so. Romans 8:18-25 says that the "whole creation" "will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God," That "whole creation" includes our little dog. Thanks be to God for giving Marianne and me the joy of our little dog named Pretzel.

Faithfully,

Christian