Column for Dec. 31, 2009

Several months ago, I read an article on the internet on the top ten dumbest dog breeds in the world. It just so happens that I own a dog that is one of those dumbest breeds. I have absolutely no quarrel with the assessment of the Pekingese as portrayed in the article.

I pretty much got stuck with this "dogtard" as I call her. I never really wanted a Pekingese to begin with. A family member who was living in my household at the time was a Pekingese lover and wanted one. We had a Peke that died of old age about two weeks before we got my current one.

Daisy was a rescued dog. She was on a WRAL news story over three years ago. When we saw the news story, we inquired about the dog, tracked down the dog's keeper, and ended up adopting her. She had a rough life. Her story and videos are on www.myspace.com/daisythepeke in case anyone wants to see her and find out her story.

Daisy has often been indiscriminate about where she leaves "packages". Even though Christmas is over, we still get packages. I found one just this morning. She is fairly housebroken, but being one of the top ten dumbest dog breeds in the world combined with the fact that she is a special needs pet, she often does not end up on the prescribed puppy pad or wait until we go outdoors. Our 75 year old granny, who is staying with us while recovering from surgery, has a great deal of sympathy for this little dog. Neither of them walks well. Daisy seems to have bad hips and Granny just had total knee replacement surgery and needs the other knee done, as well.

John, our six-year-old loves to play news reporter whenever Daisy the Peke leaves a package for us. He expects someone to snap to attention, march to the bathroom or kitchen, get some sort of paper towel or tissue product, and dispose of the malodorous package immediately. I have been trying to use this as an object lesson in my boy's life.

I have been constantly instructing the child that instead of playing news reporter and shouting the news of the existence of such a package preceded by the interjection, "Eeeeeeyewwwww, dog poop!" that he should take charge of the situation and clean up the mess himself. He often balks at this idea and would rather that someone else clean up a mess he discovered.

In my job, my life, my relationships, and in much of the ministry work I have done, I have been working to clean up the messes left by others. It seems to be a recurring theme in my life. Sometimes I have to clean up my own messes, as well. Things that are within my scope of responsibility and ability need to be addressed by me. Things that are within my family need to be addressed by my family. Daisy is within the scope of the entire family and therefore needs to be addressed by the family as a whole.