My sweet friend, Paul, wonders about the eternal staying power of our dear canine (and other animal) friends.
A dog lover from the time I could walk, the story of Balto first captured my imagination as an elementary student; I was–clearly–overcome when I spied the statue in Central Park yesterday.
Instead of having a unique, embodied soul, I tell myself that our furry companions’ personalities may show up again in another pet, part of the foggy hint of the divine hidden throughout all creation.
  In my husband’s senior pictures, he brought his companion, Cinder, a courageous and loving German Shepherd with somewhat unusual coloring. I never met this sweet favorite childhood dog of Jordan’s, except that when I went to a shelter in Durham a decade later, I met and adopted on the spot a courageous and loving German Shepherd with somewhat unusual coloring.
Though animals pass away like the flowers of the field, in their lives they show us the beauty of God.