Animal idolatry

As my grandmother aged she changed. Something about the aging process changed her from the woman I knew growing up to a different woman while still being the same woman, if that makes sense. Somewhere inside the woman that age was turning her into was still the grandmother I knew all my life. The older she got, the more age got the better of her, the more she changed.

She's in her 80's now and living in a nursing home. But once upon a time, about ten years ago, she lived in that place between being the grandmother I grew up knowing and being the woman that now suffers from Alzheimers and other ailments. And somewhere in that place, between where she is now and what she used to be, she had a dog. One single dog. That was nothing new for her. I'm not sure I can recall a time in my life when my grandparents didn't have at least one dog. They just seemed to be dog people. My grandmother favored Chihuahuas. My grandpa favored whatever dog he had at the moment. My grandmother preferred to keep her dogs at home. She trained them to do two things, 1) stay out of the kitchen and 2) sleep in a dog crate. That was it. Beyond that her dogs had the run of the house to do as they pleased including biting the grandkids. My grandpa preferred to take his dog with him. He taught his dogs to get in his truck, to wait there with the windows down, and he often bought them chicken from restaurants just because 'they like it'.

That was my grandparents and their pets. They often had two dogs. His and hers. That was just...Grandma and Grandpa. They had their dogs and you enjoyed them or put up with them depending on your feelings about dogs because Grandma and Grandpa always had them.

So my grandmother having a dog was nothing new, nothing special. She had her dog. In her mind her dog was well cared for and loved. And maybe it was. But her dog lived in the house, was rarely, if ever, bathed, covered in fleas and barely housebroken. But Grandma loved her dog and well...by that point Grandma lived alone. She needed the companionship of the dog, we all told ourselves and each other. She needed what protection that dog could offer. She needed...whatever she thought that dog could supply. We helped her get flea medicine and bathe the dog.

But somewhere along the line that dog became two dogs. Then three. Then four. Then...I don't know what the final count was before we convinced her she should not have all those dogs. But my poor grandmother loved those dogs. She really and truly loved every one of them. She had one that my uncle bought her as a puppy that once grown would bite her on a regular basis. That dog was the cause of her getting stitches more than once. We couldn't convince her to part with it because by then my uncle had died and in my grandmother's mind that dog was all she had left of her son.

Someone else gave her a very old Chihuahua. That dog had problems. It could barely eat and had had a stroke or something. It had no control over its tongue. That poor dogs tongue hung out of its mouth constantly.

The thing is that somewhere in her time of collecting dogs she lost the ability to see them as dogs. It started with the Chihuahua that couldn't control its tongue. That dog required a whole lot of care. She hand fed it and took to taking it everywhere she went. The dog was grown but she carried it in a purse, even taking it into restaurants because somehow my grandmother had the idea that because the dog could not eat hard food and had a hard time with other types of food that the dog could not be left alone for any reason.

We all dealt with it, trying to encourage her to leave the dog at home for its own good, trying to convince her that there were places she wasn't allowed to take the dog. And in the end Grandma took the dog everywhere until she somehow decided that it was best left at home when she went to town.

Long before that day came my grandmother took to calling that dog her baby and somehow from there that one dog being her baby became all of her dogs being her babies. And in her mind those dogs were truly her babies. I don't think she was able to distinguish between the dogs she called her babies and real babies. I have seen her interrupt strangers in town, strangers that were talking of their children or grandchildren, strangers speaking of brand new babies born into their family, to tell them about her 'babies'. The strangers would think by the way my grandmother spoke that she was talking of real babies and they would join the conversation thinking they were discussing real babies.

When my grandmother told them that her 'baby' was sick, those strangers worried over those babies thinking they were human babies. We tried talking to my grandmother about it to no avail. Strangers that found out she was speaking of dogs and not babies would either smile and extract themselves from the conversation or laugh about how they thought she was speaking of real babies.

But the thing is to my grandmother...she was. In her mind those dogs were babies. Her babies. And she truly could not see the difference in them and in real human babies.

We chalked it up to her age the same way we chalked up other things to her age. It was just one of those things about Grandma now that didn't used to be there.

Up until my grandmother started referring to her dogs as babies I had NEVER heard of anyone calling their animal their baby. I had known many people that loved their animals. Had met and known people that went to great expense and invested lots of time in their animals but somehow all the people I knew or met had PETS not babies. No matter how much they might love their animals they still had PETS.

Back then I did very little online. No social media. No blogging. I had email and did little else beyond some research now and then. As a result I thought this phenomena of calling animals babies was some odd trait my grandmother picked up as she aged and assumed it wasn't something most other sane people did.

Now I know better.

I can't count the number of people I've met in town that spoke of their 'babies', the number of people online that call their animals their 'babies; or 'fur babies' and well...the number of people that just plain speak of animals as if they are somehow kids or at least humans.

Just the other day I saw a post on social media about someone that had seen a dog on their daughters neighbors roof. Apparently the neighbors leave a window open so their dogs can go in and out as they wish but instead of going into the yard they go onto the roof. I have to admit I found the concept a little odd but the pictures were amusing. Who expects to see a dog sitting on a roof?

But it was the comments that bothered me. So many people spoke of how the owners were negligent in letting the dogs get on the roof. Some spoke of animal cruelty.

Really?

This was a dog that appeared well cared for. And yet the fact that the dog willingly went onto the roof meant the owners were cruel and negligent. I just can't make the connection.

There are rules, laws even, about animals of any kind being allowed in businesses where food is sold or served and yet more and more these days I see dogs, and a few other animals, in grocery stores. And no one tells them to remove the animal from the store. Workers pass by the dog like its not there or worse, stop and chat with the owner, talking about or to the dog. What happened to the rules and laws that mean those animals cannot be where food is sold?

I recently was at a doctors office, waiting in the car for a relative to come out, and discovered that another patient had brought their dog to their appointment. They did leave the dog in the car, something the dog was either not used to or did not like because it barked nonstop the entire time I was waiting in the parking lot. When my relative came out of the doctors office they commented on how the dog could be heard inside and how the receptionist was upset because it was disturbing to listen to.

There's nothing, in and of itself, bad about someone taking their dog anywhere and leaving it in their vehicle but this person took a dog that obviously cannot handle being left alone in the car and parked right up next to the front of the doctors office ensuring that everyone around, including patients in extreme pain, had to listen to their beloved pet.

I will be the first person to admit that I am not what the world refers to as an animal person. I can take animals or leave them and if I'm doing the care taking, more often than not I will leave them, but I don't mind a well behaved, well trained animal so long as it's clean and not in the store where I'm buying my groceries. I'm sorry but seeing a dog sitting in the baby seat in a shopping cart and knowing someone is going to place their baby in that same seat later is disturbing. So is the thought of buying food that someone's dog may have licked or even peed on. Yes, I have been in the store when someones dog, while riding in the cart, peed. In the floor. On the food in the shopping cart. What did the owner of the animal do? Hurry away from the evidence that their pet just left on the floor. I have no idea what they did with the things in the cart that were ruined.

But the thing is...animals don't seem to be seen as animals anymore. Somehow they are being elevated to something higher than humans, more akin to some kind of god. Maybe it's always been there and I just never saw it but it seems to me that it's escalating at a rapid pace.

There are contests for animals, usually dogs. There are day cares for dogs. Spa's for dogs. Vacation spots for dogs. There are fancy dresses, life jackets, suits, and Halloween costumes for dogs. You name it, you can probably get it for your dog and a good number of other types of pets too.

Somehow, somewhere along the line animals, especially dogs, followed closely by cats, have become idols in the extreme. And no one seems to see it. I see posts on social media all the time, posts by professing 'Christians', that speak of their 'baby' or their 'fur babies' and no one, not even the other professing 'Christians' correct them. No one says that those animals are pets and not kids. No one asks them if they realize they have made idols of their animals.

Scripture tells us that man is to use animals to serve us. We are shown animals that are used for transportation, animals that are used for food, even animals that were used to show God's wrath. But we are told not to make an idol of anything. And yet, here people are, idolizing animals to a point so far out there that I don't even know how to describe it.

I have a relative that owns a dog that takes food right out of her kids hands, that eats her food while she's eating it. And that's okay because the dog wants it. Ummm...really? This same dog bites her kids for any and every reason and it's okay because this nearly year old dog is just a 'little puppy' and 'needs to chew'. This same dog is referred to as her 'baby', 'kid' and is 'one of the family'. In fact it's one of the family to the point that they take it just about everywhere with them, even to visit friends and family.

Is that not idolatry?

Is that not placing the same, or more, importance on the dog than on the kids? This dog, by the way, was given the real human baby's favorite blanket. It is allowed to chew on all the kids toys because this dog is 'one of the kids' and it is 'Mommy and daddy's baby'.

I wish that these examples I've given in this post were rare and unusual happenings. I really wish they were. But they aren't.

There is an entire television channel dedicated to animals. I had the misfortune of seeing part of a show on that channel recently. It was something about animal rescues and in that episode the police, I don't know if they were actual police or animal enforcement officers, went to a house where they said the owner hadn't been seen for over two or three, I can't remember which, months. They walked around the outside of the house, a house that looked like it was lived in, and were VERY upset to discover a dead dog inside a dog house in the backyard. It seemed that these officers were actually disgusted at the dogs deceased condition.

They talked about that 'poor' dog. They talked about how could anyone do this to an animal. And all the time I was sitting there watching I wondered when they were going to get around to worrying about where the person or people were that belonged in that house. If they had been missing for two or three months...should the animals have been the number one concern?

But the animals were the number one concern. From that dog house in the back yard the officers continued their look-see around the house then talked about going inside. They spoke of seeing a dog that was still alive through a window and a bird cage that they couldn't tell if it was occupied or not. But they did not wonder where the person or people were that should have been in that home. They worried about what they would find inside that house but it wasn't the worry of finding dead people that concerned them, it was what condition they might find animals in that had them worried.

About the first thing they noticed when they entered the house was several guns propped in a corner. What I noticed was they weren't cheap or old guns. They appeared to be in good condition and they were higher powered rifles. They didn't strike me as the kind of thing a person would just move off and leave. The officers took notice of them but never mentioned that where there are guns like that there should be people. Maybe they know something I don't. Maybe people just up and move off and leave their fancy guns every day but in my experience gun people don't just leave their guns. They might leave everything else but they don't leave their guns. Not without some serious extenuating circumstances anyway.

And yet here these officers were, noting the guns, but giving no thought to where the person was. They just went right on talking about what animals they might find in the house and what condition those animals might be in.

We never did find out where the owners were but the officers were pleased to rescue one living dog from a house where the owner was missing. It was as if the animals were all that mattered.

I can't help but see in that show, in that animal station, the promotion of animal idolatry. There are kids shows that promote dogs as the most important characters, shows that portray dogs as being human like, shows that, well...push dogs.

But it's not all dogs. There are just as many shows about cats. Although that's pretty much where the animal love ends. There's some push of horses and other furry things but very little about lizards, snakes, birds, or any other kind of nonstandard pet.

There are even complete shows about the killing of alligators and snakes. No one seems to care if a snake is captured and cut open while its still alive but let a dog go out on a roof of its own accord and it's animal cruelty. Catch an alligator with some kind of line and hook then shoot it in the head and it's perfectly fine but don't neglect to feed your cat. Let cattle and chickens live in filthy, feces infested muck up to their knees then kill them and eat them and that's okay but don't chain your dog without giving it a place to get out of the sun.

It seems that animal idolatry is everywhere, even in chickens and cattle. There are those that won't eat meat because it's animal cruelty. Those that plaster certain breeds of animals on their clothing and coffee cups. Those that think so highly of their pets that they could care less that they just put their animal in a shopping cart where a child will later be put, a child that could have life threatening allergies.

I know of a family whose young son is so allergic to cats that he goes into anaphalactic shock if a cat has been in their yard and the boy goes outside, even if there is no sign of a cat anywhere around. There are people that are terrified of animals. And yet, people bring their pets into stores despite laws and rules forbidding that very thing.

Is that the reason the Lord put animals on this earth? Are dogs here to have their owners cooking them fancy dinners, buying them wardrobes of clothes and piles of toys or are they here to serve people, providing security, assistance to the disabled, clean up of the earth through eating waste, providing transportation, and search and rescue missions? Dogs can be well cared for while being trained to serve and help the people around them.

Are cats here to be bought fancy canned food, elaborate tree scratching posts (designed to mimic experiences they would have living in the wild), and having their every meow catered to or are they here to hunt mice and other rodents?

Are animals here to serve?

Or to be served?