The Story of Puppy

Gò0dNews for Everyone

The Story Of Puppy

by Earl Brackin

My wife loves animals, especially dogs. She passed that on to our three girls. We’ve got pictures and stories of our cats, hamsters, fish, ducks, rabbits, you name it. At every family gathering, it’s not long before someone will say, “Remember that time…” and a pet story will burst forth, and we’ll laugh or cry depending on the tale. That brings me to Puppy!

He was a black stray dog mix that showed up at our house one day. As you might expect, he was hungry, needed a bath, and I doubt he had ever seen a vet. Of course, the girls all began the cry, “Can we keep him, please, daddy, can we keep him?” My response was, “…No. And don’t start with what are we going to name him.” My plan was to take him to the animal shelter. The problem was that he wouldn’t let us touch him. He had obviously been badly mistreated. He wanted food and a place to get out of the weather, but he was not about to let us touch him: not even one little head scratch.

By now, you’ve figured out the obvious. We kept him. And since I wouldn’t let the girls name him, they called him “Puppy.” He lived with us for 15 years. He was always glad to see us when we drove in the driveway and would always hang around us when we went out into the yard. He protected our house by barking if anyone he didn’t know came to the door, and of course, he ran any other animal out of the yard. But he never would let us pet him. You’d think that after all those years, he would have known that we loved him and wanted to care for him. On a rare occasion, if you would sit down on the ground, look away from him, and be really still, he would slowly walk up to your hand and put his nose on your fingers. Then, and only then, he would let you scratch his head. But if you looked at him, he would run and look back at you as if you violated his protocol.

God used Puppy one day to speak to me. It all started with a cat named Moe. I’m not even going to start that story. 38 // November 2020

I’ll just say it was another animal in distress that one of my girls just knew it was her purpose in life to rescue. We had had Moe not even a week. He was back from the vet with medicine and instructions on how to help the little thing survive. It was freezing outside. This cat was on my couch, in a warm house, snug and well cared for. Puppy, however, was outside in the winter cold with no shelter (I had built him a house with a warming light, but he wouldn’t use

it). He was the “oldest son”: he had been with us at least a few years, and here was this cat who had been with us not a week and he was “in the promised land.” Then the Lord spoke to me. “Puppy is outside missing the blessings of a warm house and loving hands because his fear keeps him from seeing your desire to be good to him.”

Puppy lived with us for 15 years. We fed him and cared for him as best we could, but he never had the life he could have had because he just couldn’t overcome his fear and trust us. Where do you need to trust God? How would your life be different if you did? Spend some time meditating on 1 Peter 4:7—and on Puppy.

About The Author Earl Brackin is the Minister of Worship at Church on the Hill in Dalton, Georgia. He and his wife Lisa have three children and 5 grandchildren. You can hear his music at earlbrackinmusic.com.