bad maggie...

Maggie is proof that we live in a fallen world. She has me convinced. And it’s not that she’s particularly bad or anything, it’s just that she, a puppy, does have an instinctive sin nature.

You ask me how I know this, that a dog is inclined to do the wrong thing. This innocent animal who is currently lying in a flower bed, gnawing on some poor defenseless plant, how could she possibly do anything wrong?

Well, let’s consider the carpet incidents, for instance. We have new carpet in our house so we decided Maggie should not be allowed to walk on it, especially as we are having a few setbacks in housebreaking. Maggie knows this. (You may at this point choose to argue that dogs cannot understand us when we talk. I think this is ridiculous. When I speak to Maggie I can tell by her expression and her eyes that she knows I am speaking to her and if she has done something good or if she is in trouble. That’s what I’m getting to…) So if I walk into the hallway, say to put away a book, to get a load of laundry, or to do some other task in one of the bedrooms, Maggie attempts to follow me. I stop in the doorway, look at her, and in my very stern voice say: “Maggie, Stay! Do not follow me onto the carpet!” She then looks at me, lies down on the rug by the door, (on which she is allowed to play) and gives me a very pathetic look that says to me, “ok, I’ll try.”

At this point in our conversation, I walk to wherever I’m going and get whatever I’m getting. But as I turn to come back down the hallway, I see that Maggie has not stayed in the den on her rug, but is creeping, super quietly, body low to the ground, out into the hallway. So I say: “Maggie!! That is not allowed!!” in my corrective voice. She knows she is in trouble, so she tries to become an actual part of the carpet, with ears, paws, and belly flat against it, and then she hurries back to her rug. This happens EVERY day.

Tell me this is not a case of someone deliberately choosing the wrong choice by instinct…not a learned behavior. Even our puppy has a sinful side, and that is just more evidence we really do live in a fallen world.