WITH A CHILD'S FAITH--ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN

When I was growing up, we always had dogs. We had the family pet, King, who was a collie/German shepherd mix, and then several old hunting dogs that Daddy kept. The hunting dogs were well cared for, but not treated as pets. They lived in a pen, were fed twice a day, and were off limits to children.

This rule was rarely broken. But when one of the female dogs would have pups, Daddy would be a little more lenient on our having access to them. My two brothers and I were always overjoyed when pups were to be born. It was exciting to waiting in anticipation to be able to play with them and give them all names. Better still, there was the slimmest chance that Daddy might let us keep one!

There was no vet involved in the birthing of pups, only Mother Nature and the will of God. Sometimes everything happened as it should, and a healthy litter would enter the world. Sometimes, it could be bad and the pups would either die during birth, or soon after.

Even as a small child, the acceptance of death was very hard for me. I was raised to believe that God was love, and I just could not understand how a loving God could let babies—be they two or four legged—die.

When I was around six years old, Daddy best coon hound, Jenny Beth, had seven pups. Jenny had a very hard time of it, and Daddy even stayed with her to make sure she didn’t bleed to death during the birth. But after quite a struggle, Jenny pulled through, and the pups were born alive.

Unfortunately, they didn’t stay that way.

A couple of mornings later, when my brother and I rushed down to the dog pen to see the pups, they all lie still as stones. My brother fetched Daddy. When he walked up to the gate and saw the lifeless little bodies, we could see it on his face. They were all dead, lying in a tumble near the mother, sleeping the slumber that never ends. Poor Jenny Beth looked heartbroken as Daddy gathered up the little bodies and placed them in an old water pan outside the pen. I was crying so hard I couldn’t breathe. Daddy told my brother and I to go to the house, that he would bury the pups later.

My brother turned to go, but I couldn’t leave. I immediately grabbed the pups out of the pan and tried to wake them up. Their little eyes had never had a chance to open, and their bodies were hard and frozen in death. I tried and tried to make them move, until finally my brother made me put them down and pulled me away from the dog pen towards the house.

We got about half way there before I broke away and ran back for the dog pen. My brother let me go, he didn’t follow.

I went back, gathered every pup in my arms, and took off. There was an old drainage ditch not far from the dog pin, and I climbed down into the culvert near the drain pipe, clutching the dead pups in my arms. I laid them out on the rocky ground, crying so hard that I couldn’t see. I begged God to take the puppies to Heaven, because they were good puppies and had never hurt anybody. I prayed and prayed that God would let those little souls into his kingdom, because if he didn’t, where would they have left to turn to?

I don’t know how long I sat in the ditch and cried, begging God for those puppies entrance into the Pearly Gates. But somewhere along the line, I felt a peace and confidence that God would answer my prayers. I left the tiny bodies there on the rocky ground, climbed out of the culvert, and went home.

The next day, I went back. The puppies were gone.

I realize as an adult that the little bodies were probably carried off in the night by some predator. It is the circle of life, the way of nature. But that day, in my heart, I knew that God had reached down from the sky and taken my puppies to Heaven. I was so happy, and I thanked God for giving my puppies a place in his kingdom.

It was the faith of a child that believed that God took seven little lifeless forms into Heaven. That faith was unshakable, and could never be broken.

I never forgot that day of prayer and tears in the culvert. It’s a reminder that faith is the cornerstone of all things, and that God hears all our prayers.

Even the ones made by little boys, who want their dogs to go to Heaven.