#Gizmo’s #religious state while his feet were washed.

Nirvana?  Or just waiting for this to be over?

I am calm, I am centered, I am a doggy Budah.

            When I returned from a two-mile walk with Gizmo, his feet were filthy and nearly black, probably because it rained a bit the night before and we had to walk on asphalt most of the way. They needed to be cleaned before he could walk anywhere in the house.

            I sat down, held him in my arms, and washed each paw with a clothe, the first to apply a little bit of soap and the second to dry off the paws, and perhaps get more dirt off of him.  In seconds, both wash clothes were dirty.

            During the process, Gizmo was calm.  In fact, the expression on his face seemed to almost indicate that this was approaching a religious experience for him.  He had an other-worldly expression, as if he were meditating and were miles away from having his paws fiddled with.

         He seemed to be expressing, “After you wash my feet, I will kiss your hand.  Thus I will establish fealty to you and will thank you for the washing of the feet, which is, after all, a religious ceremony mentioned in the Bible.”            

 Yes, I have now gone far beyond science and logic, but I have never seen that facial expression on Gizmo.  Can a dog enter a meditative state?  Can washing a dog’s feet lead him to experience nirvana?  I do not know.

       “My obstetrician was so dumb that when I gave birth he forgot to cut the cord. For a year that kid followed me everywhere. It was like having a dog on a leash.”

Joan Rivers