Proof Of God's Neutrality

Luky started this year (picture from January 2010) with a slight limp. We began giving him the anti-inflammatory, Rimadyl, and that helped a lot . . . though, if he was ever in any pain he never allowed it to show in his mood. He always maintained that gentle, loving, "living-bear-rug" demeanor I've come to know to be Alaskan Malamute.

By late Spring he was still excited to walk to the lake, but he didn't have the strength to get home. We had to stop and rest a number of times to make that final two or three blocks. Summer was hot, and I kept him inside most of the time. Like me, he would lie as close to the air conditioning vent as possible. But he was losing control of his hind legs very quickly.

No use belaboring the story. I'm the only one who reads this anyway - except John May, and he's gone now, too. Luky's last breath was as gentle as he lived, and I couldn't help thinking that if there is a God then the fact that an animal like this has to die - ever - is proof to me that He does not play favorites. If ever there was a creature that deserved to be here, simply by virtue of the innate goodness he contributed to the world by just napping on my kitchen floor, then Luky was that creature.