My life has changed with the addition of one very cute
pup. Meet Francis, named after my
favorite saint, Saint Francis of Assisi.
When I came back to the Catholic Church, I didn’t understand saints, I
felt like they took the glory away from God and though I was explained various
times that they are friends who intercede for us, I still wasn’t sold by the
idea. Then one day I discovered Saint
Francis and our shared loved for animals and nature; thus, began a slow introduction
into the lives of the saints. The more I
learn about Saint Francis and his Franciscan spirituality the more that I see
the importance of the lives of the saints.
You see, in learning their personal testimony through their example we
are led to Christ in a very personal way.
Recently I have become enamored by the writing of the saints, their
words are so encouraging – they are like pieces of poetic prose that (to a word
loving nerd like myself) just penetrate my soul. Saint Francis has taught me that in following God, there's room for me to still have my own identity- something that I was terrified of losing...
Back to Francis the pup, since this is his introduction, I
just like to say that he in no way is filling the Dollar shaped void that my
little canine in heaven left- but Francis sure is carving his own space in my
heart. My friends asked for the story on how Francis and I came together and while it’s not as interesting as my first encounter with Dollar (click here to read that story) it’s still the story of us. I had been looking for a pup for a few weeks
now, but I kept searching for Dollar in the animal shelter sites. I wanted a
thirty-five-pound terrier just like Dollar- who I thought was the perfect size
for me. Then last week a friend from
Saint Barbara Parish posted on Facebook that she was giving away five pups from
a litter born to her dog. I asked her if
she had a male and how big they grew and before I knew it, I was driving home with my new six-week-old Shih Tzu covered in his sibling’s feces. I got home gave him a bath, baptized him as
Francis and we have begun puppy training.
After his first veterinarian visit and first round of vaccinations
– I was given two thumbs up in terms of my pup’s health. Francis is a sweet, curious boy experiencing
the big world for the first time. He
loves the outdoors, following moving feet, zig-zagging through my dad’s plants,
and sleeping on my head. Currently he is
a little over two-pounds- but will grow to seventeen or twenty pounds when full
grown. He’s teething so he loves chewing
on things and putting everything in his mouth.
For this breed nipping can be a problem so am trying to train him to chew only his toys and not everything that he encounters. He seems to love to bite toes a habit I am
trying to break. Though there are puppy
schools, I want to train Francis myself since I did train Dollar, and he was
such a good behaved dog. Francis can’t
go out until he’s about four months old, so for the time being he is bonding
with his new pack. I can’t wait to get
him blessed this week and to continue making memories together for a long time
to come.
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