Crisis! Having been home this morning looking after one of our dogs, Suzie, who's had an operation and is now looking most wobegone, with big shaved patches displaying ugly looking stitched-up cuts (think "Frankenstein's dog"), I was called away from our fortnightly chant practice to help take her in to see the vet after hours, since there was some bleeding from her wounds. I don't do blood. I don't do suffering in dumb animals. Well, some bandaging later, we've settled her down for the night, and will take her in to the vet again in the morning...
Dear Father was most understanding when my mobile went off in church (!), and suggested, good Franciscan that he was, that we pray St Francis to intercede for Suzie. I must admit, I would have thought it otherwise somehow inappropriate to pray God for a sick dog, but realize now that that is quite wrong: God made all creatures, "beasts in their thousands on My hills", "all that moves in the field belongs to Me"; and the Missal does after all contain prayers against cattle plague.
St Francis, pray for all God's creatures, particularly Suzie.
Oh dear. Pets. You have my greatest sympathies. This year, I have already (at great expense) fought off Goldie the Guinea Pig's mite infestation (a course of Revolution Puppy anti-flea treatment), and had 3 cm of tail amputated from our pet rat, Twitchy, as a result of him having gnawed through it... Now our cat has developed some kind of nervous tick by which she is pulling out large clumps of fur leaving funny bald patches. Is it all worth it? The kids seem to think so. And admittedly, I couldn't bear to see the poor things suffer. So yes, I will join St Francis in praying for Suzie.
ReplyDeleteGood news: Suzie is getting better - if it weren't for the stitches, I'd say she was back to normal: loving to eat, run, bark, etc.
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