Stahlke Adoption

My Teacher

"Lord of all eagerness, Lord of all faith,
Whose strong hands were skilled at the plane and the lathe:
Be there at our labors, and give us, we pray,
Your strength in our hearts, Lord, at the noon of the day."

Lutheran Service Book, Hymn No. 738, st. 2

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I always think of my brother, a carpenter and home builder, when I sing these words. But if one looks at this stanza in a more general sense, it is about devotion to one's work. Alabama was devoted to her work, which was devotion to us.
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One of the most wonderful things about dogs is their unconditional love for their owners. No matter what happened in my day, when I returned home, Alabama and Dakota would be there at the door, wagging their tails and gazing at me with their beautiful eyes. Several years ago, Dakota went blind for a time, and the loss of his gaze was much worse for me than I ever imagined it could be.
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It's summertime in Texas--very hot--and Jonathan and I take our new puppy to the lake. I'm standing about twenty yards from shore, watching Jonathan and Alabama. He puts her down at the water's edge and swims quite a distance into the lake. She becomes agitated, feeling very alone (she doesn't realize that I'm standing close by). Suddenly she jumps straight into the water and swims toward Jonathan--a tiny puppy determined not to lose her master. She was ready to swim the whole lake for him. When she reached him, she clawed her way up his bare chest to his shoulder and hung on for dear life. Their special bond, which he told me was unexplainably strong, continued for the rest of her life.
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The house was her domain, and it had to be protected. The invasion of the mailman each day required a special measure of ferociousness. One time I saw her bite the mail as it entered the mail slot, sure that the mailman's very arm was entering "her space." Early on, she was also suspicious of the television. Those little people inside looked unusual, and she walked behind the TV looking for them.
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I spent several years upstairs in my office, writing my dissertation. The dogs kept me company in what would have otherwise been a very lonely pursuit. They took turns, one sitting at my feet and the other on the couch downstairs, protecting the rest of the house. They were always sure who should be where, and Jonathan and I have yet to figure out how they communicated this to each other.
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Before the kids came, Jonathan and I walked the dogs every evening. Otherwise, they couldn't settle down for the night, which was important since we four all slept together. In Texas, we let the dogs run off leash, usually on campus. Alabama was always careful to know where we were, and it confounded her no end that Dakota would often get lost. She was constantly running between him and us, trying to keep the group together. She was also very aware of her surroundings. One time a garbage can on campus had been moved about ten feet to a new location. She was now very sure that it was alive--it had moved, after all!--and she barked at it with all her might.

But her curiosity often overcame her fear. She saw a life-size statue on the Baylor campus, and carefully snuck up on it to smell its out-stretched hand. When her nose touched the stone, she jumped as if she'd been shocked--it wasn't alive! That contrasted with another occasion when she went face-to-face with a curious cow. They touched noses through a fence, much to the surprise of both of them!

On another walk, this time in west Texas, she surprised an armadillo that took off running. When she was young, she could run very fast, and before long, she had pulled up side-to-side with the armadillo. Even as they barreled along at breakneck speed, she looked back at us with a look that said, "Ok, Mom and Dad, what do I do now?" Unlike Dakota, our hunter, she never killed another creature. That wasn't her job.
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Thank you, Alabama, for teaching me about devotion.

posted by Stahlkes @ 10:41 AM