June 9, 1999
DOWN HOME:
Our fine, fluffy friend
is no brother to birds
___Betsy knocked at the back door. Actually, she didn't really knock. Pawed would be more like it.
___One of the girls went to let her in, shrieked and slammed the door.
___Of course, the rest of us came running. We arrived just in time to see Betsy standing on her hind legs, her front paws on the door window, peering into the kitchen. With a dead bird clutched tightly in her jaws.
___Betsy kept on scratching on the door, and she seemed genuinely confused about why we wouldn't let her haul her prey into the house, plop down and enjoy a tasty lark lunch.
___Lindsay and Molly, our daughters, cracked the back door just enough to hurl nasty dog-epithets her way.
MARV KNOX
Editor
___"Bad dog!" one of them hollered. "You're nothing but a hairy bird murderer!"
___"Betsy, I can't believe you would kill a helpless little bird," the other yelled. "What kind of a stupid, gross monster are you?"
___You think you know your family pet. You spend six or seven years building a relationship. You take her into your home and feed her two round meals a day. You make her a bed and protect her from the elements. You even wash that yucky gunk out of her eyes.
___Then, the first time a foolish fowl lands in the back yard, thousands of years of genetic predisposition rise to the surface, and your dear, sweet pet becomes a vicious predator.
___Betsy kinda reminds me of the Infernos, a pair of tag-team wrasslers who plied their trade in front of TV cameras in Amarillo when I was a kid. The Infernos were "bad" guys, who always wrestled "good" guys, like the Funk Brothers. I guess the Infernos got tired of wrestling fans throwing food at them, and they announced they were going to be "good." Maybe they even got some sort of religion.
___But the first time Dory Funk Jr. put a spinning toe hold on the Club-Footed Inferno, the Infernos went nuts. Started banging chairs over people's heads. Started fighting dirty again. It just wasn't their nature to be the heroes. They were "bad" before "bad" was cool.
___So, when the going got tough, the tough showed their nasty colors.
___Same with Betsy. No amount of love, nurture and high-tech, high-protein dog food can eliminate her biological urge to hunt wild game. She may be cute and friendly, but she's still a carnivore.
___And although we may be a different genus and species, people aren't all that different. As fallen human beings, our urges often propel us to tug and pull and resist the love and nurture of the God who made us.
___Eventually, Betsy dropped the bird and came in the house. When we stray, God beckons us to drop our old, sinful nature and come back home.
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