"A puppy treated every puddle as a universe and every passerby as a potential best friend." ~ copied

One of the things I did when our Sir Bentley Barksalot, Esq., was with us was take a huge number of photos of that precious, affectionate little pup. He developed an incurable liver ailment, and we had to say goodbye after just five years. Very few days pass without one of his photos popping up as a memory. He was my first real pet, and I still have trouble grasping just how deeply I cared for him.

 

Seeing so many of his photos is “sweet-bitter.” That's right. Not bittersweet. It's always sweet first when we think about him. Then comes the bitter. How could you not love a face like that? Okay. That was on my mind, and now you know, on this Thursday, October 22, 2026.

 

Our Lil Miss Biscuit may have been an impulsive addition to the family, made in the hope of helping me cope with losing Bentley, but she has earned her place in our hearts, especially mine. She's currently asleep behind me in the typing chair. I can feel her little body giving my back the heating-pad treatment.

 

The late Andy Rooney made a lot of sense when he said, “The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.” Our pups have always been overwhelmingly happy to see people and generous with their affection. The great writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of Sherlock Holmes fame, made this observation: “A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones.”

 

Think about that one. Okay? Enough for now about our canine adventures.

 

A preacher acquaintance posted this photo, and it struck me as thought-provoking. What say you? That cross in the mirror confronts men, women, boys, and girls with the truth of the Gospel. It immediately reminds me of what the Apostle Paul declared in his letter to the local assembly meeting in Corinth, Greece (1 Corinthians 15:1–11, as rendered in modern English in the Oremus Bible Browser):

 

“Now I should remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.

 

“For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me.

 

“For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.”

 

That truth may be closer to someone today than they realize, just like the objects in that mirror. My prayer is that anyone who has yet to trust Him will seek the One who died for us all. Do it now. Amen.