This morning, I was saying my prayers and working very hard to maintain that prayful concentration. It worked for awhile until I was reading Pesukei D'Zimra. There in one line my thoughts went on a tangent. "Blessed is He, Who has mercy on all the creatures."

There are 5 dogs on our property, of which two are mine. Yet they all follow me like I was the Pied Piper. The other three are always on the look out to get into my house and of course they all have those big sad eyes that say, feed me, feed me, please!

I saw something written elsewhere that added to my inability to concentrate this morning. It said,
“It may very well be that a dog is God stepping into our lives in the form of the creature that He designed to love us unconditionally. A living breathing expression of the creator in the form of this harmless, affectionate animal to show us that love and humility is powerful, and can change lives.” - Joe Battaglia

I watched my dogs today, all of them with their distinct personalities. One was on his back, kicking his back legs in the air, growling with delight, at getting his back scratched. Another, walks the fence perimeter several times a day barking and growling at anything that would disturb his peace. The black dog in the picture above is Orie and her personality is that of a psychopath. The dog is neurotic, has separation anxiety to the point she chewed off 8 inches of her tail, once. She never ever leaves my side. I go to the restroom and she lays at the door and cries. She pert near sleeps on top of me because, I believe, she is making sure I can't leave her.

Now I know that in a dogs world all of the personalities and neurosies can be explained but this is what hit me this morning.

What if our dogs, are our example of the Sh'ma that says, "Love the L-rd your G-d with all your heart, all your soul and all your resources." If a piece of HaShem's essence is in all of creation and HaShem has mercy on all his creatures couldn't my supposition be correct?

Orie, in her doggie way, loves me with all her heart and soul. Her resources is getting what trash she can find and hiding it under my bed. As well as my cat loves to bring me dead birds and rats. Little presents for my pillow.

If I were to cleave to HaShem the ways all the dogs cleave to me, I would be light years ahead in my learning and studies. If every time there was a class, shul, prayer time I went bounding up to the computer, tail wagging and cries of joy coming from my mouth, I might scare someone! Ha Ha. Seriously though, if my attitude was the same as my dogs when they come to greet me, life might have a different outlook. You know, JOY!

It's a dogs life but maybe there is something to the quote above. Maybe HaShem shows us his unconditional love thru our animals. Maybe our animals can teach us how to unconditionally love our Master.

Baruch HaShem!