2016 has been a rough year in nearly every way imaginable.
I wish that I could say things are looking up. Yet, I find my customary optimism waning as even foreseeable events (particularly one in November) have the potential to add to our cycle of misery, to say nothing of events we can’t possibly anticipate.
That’s why I want to talk about puppies today.
For the last several years that I lived in Richmond, I was very involved with an organization called Bonnie Blue Rescue. The pet rescue service found animals from all around the country (mostly the southeast) that needed foster homes. A lot of them had special needs. The goal, of course, was to find “forever” homes for these creatures.
Here are pictures of some of the first animals I fostered, a pair of Weimaraner / Lab mixes named Barney and Macy. Barney showed up first, all eight pounds or so of him. He looked like his skin was two sizes too big. His sister showed up a couple of weeks later, and they were inseparable from that point forward.
Barney and Macy had a serious skin condition when they first arrived, hence the patchy hair. That condition also explains the onesies they had to wear for several weeks so as to avoid scratching themselves raw. Medicine I gave them twice daily eventually cured that.
They were also crab-legged (not sure what the technical term is), but some simple physical-therapy exercises I did with them kept that problem at bay until they grew out of it.
The funniest thing about them was that, even though they each had their own little crate, they insisted on sleeping in the same bed. They would curl up and snuggle when they slept. When they weren’t sleeping, they would wrestle and play almost non-stop.
They both grew up to become handsome, healthy dogs.
I posted this as a reminder—to myself most of all—that, despite the sometimes harrowing examples of evil that we must witness and sometimes endure, the wonder and beauty and good in the world will always dwarf it.
Even if it doesn’t feel like it some days.
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The Axis of Ego 
Let’s Look at Some Pictures of Puppies
2016 has been a rough year in nearly every way imaginable.
I wish that I could say things are looking up. Yet, I find my customary optimism waning as even foreseeable events (particularly one in November) have the potential to add to our cycle of misery, to say nothing of events we can’t possibly anticipate.
That’s why I want to talk about puppies today.
Here are pictures of some of the first animals I fostered, a pair of Weimaraner / Lab mixes named Barney and Macy. Barney showed up first, all eight pounds or so of him. He looked like his skin was two sizes too big. His sister showed up a couple of weeks later, and they were inseparable from that point forward.
Barney and Macy had a serious skin condition when they first arrived, hence the patchy hair. That condition also explains the onesies they had to wear for several weeks so as to avoid scratching themselves raw. Medicine I gave them twice daily eventually cured that.
They were also crab-legged (not sure what the technical term is), but some simple physical-therapy exercises I did with them kept that problem at bay until they grew out of it.
The funniest thing about them was that, even though they each had their own little crate, they insisted on sleeping in the same bed. They would curl up and snuggle when they slept. When they weren’t sleeping, they would wrestle and play almost non-stop.
They both grew up to become handsome, healthy dogs.
I posted this as a reminder—to myself most of all—that, despite the sometimes harrowing examples of evil that we must witness and sometimes endure, the wonder and beauty and good in the world will always dwarf it.
Even if it doesn’t feel like it some days.
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Like this:
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