Pepper the Fraidy Cat Dog

A little after settling into our house in Indianapolis, we added to our pack of dogs by adopting Pepper from a rescue shelter. She was supposedly a black Labrador puppy around seven months old, but she came from an abusive home so her roots remain murky. While she exhibits some lab characteristics in her behavior, and she has the general build and color of a lab, she has never grown any larger than her puppyish size. Perhaps if we could isolate her gene pool, we could make a fortune selling a new breed of miniature labs, but that is beyond our current interests. 


So Pepper is not quite a lab, but that is only part of the story. She is also very emotionally reserved. At least at this point in time no one has given a Myers-Briggs personality inventory to a dog, but Pepper is definitely introverted. She is unlikely to approach anyone for attention, does not like being hugged or scratched all that much, and until she knows for sure what is happening, her first action is to hide in any given situation. But she is also virtually trouble free, as her approach to life means that she does not investigate the kitchen trash or the laundry pile as the other dogs of our house have been known to do. So her primary activity in life is to lie on the family room couch, though to her credit she is usually willing to share it with other dogs, cats, and the occasional human.


So sometimes it is tempting to wonder what Pepper is good for besides holding down the couch cushions. Then I look at her cute face, and I wonder even more how anyone could have abused her so much that she is literally afraid of the wind in the trees. I wonder how someone could have neglected her so much that she fights her instinct to bond with the humans around her with her experience of the dire results of her early life in trying to do so. And I realize she is our four legged reminder of what Christians are called to do-to welcome those so damaged by life that they don?t know that they are beloved children of God.


Sometimes such people will walk through a church door, and other times they must be sought out. Sometimes such people will present themselves as healthy and whole, and only later do their wounds start to be evident. Sometimes such folks do not know that humans can truly love one another rather than use each other. Pepper, with her sketchy past and reluctant connections with us, reminds me to treat everyone around me with care, as all of us have hidden scars and resulting fears that go beyond rationality. Pepper is our four legged Gospel lesson.