This morning I am leaving to take a couple of days away for prayer.  I try to go at least once a year by myself to spend time seeking the Lord.  I will be traveling to a cottage south of Houston that is owned by the Christian Radio Station KJIC.  They graciously allow ministers to spend time in prayer in this little cottage. 

I also read a great quote this morning in Gordan Fee’s, Paul, The Spirit and the People of God, “Everyone has a theology [that is, some rudimentary view of God and the world on the basis of which they live]; the question is not whether you have a theology – you do – but whether you have a good one.”

How’s your theology?

I was quite enlightened by my first trip to a dog show.  I love dogs but some people go a little over board.  I witnessed first hand: dog salons, dog jewelry, dog clothes and even a pet deli (a smorgasbord of juicy bones in a hundred flavors).  The pet deli was kind of like Baskin Robbins for dogs.  But my favorite was the pet psychic.  Yes, bring in Fido and we will tell his future.  We will see if he will have a long life and whether he will marry a Chihuahua or a poodle or whether he will end his life being caught by the dog catcher.  My amazement at this was that people actually spend money on this stuff.  It’s a dog.  Their future is to be man’s best friend:)

On another note: Pet Books.  I have been trying for several years to find a publisher for my second book. The manuscript is complete but the Christian Publishing World is hard to break into.  I decided that I will write a book on dogs.  If you want to be an author you have to go to where you can be published.  Dog book publishers will take about anything.  My favorite titles were, How To Raise A Jewish Dog; Animals And The Afterlife: True Stories of our Best Friend’s Journey Beyond Death; and Animal Reiki, Using Energy To Heal Your Pets.  Okay, the afterlife one kind of messed me up.  I am an admitted skeptic/discerner of alot of things.  Tell me how they knew what happened to the dog beyond this life.  I understand those (humans) who die and come back and share their afterlife experience, because they can actually talk.  How did they find out their best friend’s experience? Do they speak bark or did the Dog Whisperer translate for them? Wait maybe the pet psychic helped them out on this.  I wanted to buy the book just to see what it said.  Those were only a few of the interesting titles.

I thoroughly enjoyed the dog show.  Sonya watched me capturing pictures of the dog books and said, “I feel a blog coming on.”  I am not sure what she meant.  I guess she thinks I will find something to blog about in almost anything:)

Saturday we made our first trip to a dog show.  The Houston World Series of Dog Shows was at Reliant Stadium and we surprised Josh with tickets to go.  Josh loves dog and is on his way to becoming a dog expert.  He reads about dogs.  Studies the AKC regulations.  He loves dogs!

Josh’s goal in life, up to this point, was to pet a Mastiff.  Josh has tried to talk us into buying a Mastiff for a long time.  The problem with this impressive dog is that it weighs in at over 200 pounds and can get up to 300 pounds.  The largest dog in the world is an English Mastiff.  343 pounds.  I can’t afford to feed a horse/dog.  Josh’s dream came true; he got to pet a Mastiff.

We watched the judging of the Working Group dogs.  Mastiffs, Great Pyrenees, Great Danes, Siberian Huskies and more.  We also watched the flyball competition which was absolutely awesome.  It is like a relay race for dogs.  Then we watched the agility competition for dogs.  This is like steeplechase.  They have hurdles and obstacles to go through.  It was entertaining but also revealed how smart dogs are.  It also revealed that dogs are alot more trainable than cats:)

I felt the most sorry for the poodles.  Look at the picture:  They certainly have to have low self-esteem when they look in the mirror with the haircut they are made to wear.  I also couldn’t help but feel sorry for the Pekignese.  They were showing in the ring next to the Mastiff.  Can you imagine the pain they felt looking up at the Mastiff and then waddling around the carpet only 2 inches off of the ground?  🙂

Overall, our trip to the Houston Dog Show helped reassure me of how creative God is.  So many breeds of animals with distinct qualities and impressive grace, intelligence and agility.  That cannot happen by evolution.  We were able to see over a hundred breeds of dogs, which proves that God is diverse and plans creation. 

We did not, however, agree on the specific dog for the Cheney household.  Sonya likes the Old English Sheepdog.  My favorite is the Golden Retriever and Josh wants a Mastiff.  We will wait until we can all agree.  Maybe we will settle on a cat:)  Just kidding!

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