God Smiles: Daisy and the Blankie

by Tom King  (c) 2012

Daisy the Wonder Dog

They say that if you need a dog, God will give you one. As Wendy Francisco points out in her children's song, God and Dog, dog spelled backwards is God. I think that's more than an accident of spelling.

I always said I'd never be one of those old people who was stupid over a pet dog.  I was wrong.  If you've read this blog much, you've heard about Daisy the Wonder Dog till you're probably sick of it. But something happened early this morning that made me understand a little bit more how God must feel about us sometimes when we try so hard to get it right.

I had a conversation the other day about how my faith is periodically restored when people perform random acts of kindness without there being anything in it for them at all. My wife has been wanting denser foam in the sofa cushions. Sheila is from redneck stock, has virtually no behind and has a bad back to go with it. Whenever we get a new sofa she always stuffs the cushions till they are about the firmness of concrete. I don't sit on the sofa anymore because I actually have a butt and need a nice large depression to accommodate it. For her, hard as granite is comfy.

Anyway, she called the furniture store where she bought the sofa and asked what it would cost to replace the foam in the sofa cushions with a denser foam. She explained that she wanted to know how much she needed to save up to get the job done. The lady asked her some questions, did some calculating and then told Sheila there'd be no charge for the replacement foam. She told Sheila "God bless you," and that she hoped Sheila's back got better soon.

That kind of thing is what I'm talking about. It must make God smile to see people do very sweet things like that.

Daisy, our spoiled, but very obedient half Lab, half Border Collie, half blue heeler, half who knows what else, woke me up early this morning. She usually sleeps on the bed with us, but lately, since Sheila's been having lower back and kidney problems and she's been in a lot of pain, she's taken to sleeping on the floor on Sheila's side of the bed.  About halfway through the night, she jumps up on the bed and sleeps the rest of the night at the foot. After I get out of bed, she takes my spot and scoots up next to Sheila to keep her company..

Daisy had apparently decided early this morning to come up on the bed to join us, but something was wrong. She kept circling the bed and whining. I woke up and found her sitting patiently on the floor beside the bed staring at me. I patted the bed beside me and called her to jump up. She wouldn't. I tried to coax her up several times, but each time she kept running around to Sheila's side of the bed and looking at the floor. I finally got up and went around to see what she kept looking at.

Turns out that during the night, Sheila had woke, decided Daisy must be cold and pulled her plaid blanket off the bed to cover her up with. (Sheila always thinks Daisy is cold - despite the vast amounts of fur I keep brushing out of her winter coat).  Daisy looked at me. Then she looked over at the bed, then looked down at her plaid blanket.  I knew instantly what was wrong.

Daisy napping on her "blankie"

Sheila lays Daisy's plaid blanket over our bed at night so if she (the dog, not Sheila) sheds it gets on her blanket and not on the quilts and bedspread. Daisy's blanket is light weight and much easier to wash. Daisy knows she is supposed to wait to jump on the bed till her blanket is in place.

She had evidently seen that her blanket wasn't spread over the bed, so she figured she shouldn't jump up on the bed till it was. I picked up the blanket and spread it over the bed. The instant the blanket settled in place, sixty pounds of excited pooch came hurtling across the room and leaped onto the bed.  I got a good swift lick in the face, she turned round twice and curled up in her spot, grinning happily.

I understand why God might smile at our struggles to obey him and be very pleased even when we can't do it on our own. I also understand why He picks up the blanket for us once in a while too.

Tom