A Busby story

Busby was the first dog of our marriage, and probably our all time favorite. I have a lot of funny, heartwarming Busby stories. Probably my all time favorite was something I didn’t actually get a chance to see because I was at church when it happened.

Nancy had let Busby out to take care of “business” when Busby saw the female skunk. At least we think it was a female. Could have been a male, now that I think about it. It wouldn’t have made any difference.

Busby had just entered into that stage in a male dog’s life when he was absolutely convinced that every entity he encountered either was a female dog or had a female dog concealed somewhere on his or her person. So what Nancy saw to be a skunk, Busby saw as being a very attractive, small, black, female dog.

I will have to say this for the skunk. He/she showed great restraint. The skunk looks up and sees this dog coming, so it begins to waddle off toward the woods in a very dignified manner. The only problem is that it is hard to waddle in a dignified manner with a dog’s nose attached to your rear end. I have to confess that I made up the dialogue of the encounter. No actually words were spoken. But I think I caught the essence of the exchange, as it were.

Busby: “Excuse me while I stick my nose up against your rear end, but are you by any chance a small black female dog in a romantic frame of mind?”

Skunk waddling away: “No, sorry, wrong species. Not interested.”

Busby in hot pursuit, still attached, as it were, to the back end of the skunk: “But are you sure? You look like you could be a small black dog. And I find that to be very romantic.”

Skunk, waddling faster: “I don’t find one single thing about this whole episode to be romantic, and if you don’t get lost, Buster, you are going to regret it!”

Busby, still in hot pursuit: “I not sure why, but I can’t seem to get the idea that you are perhaps a small back female dog out of my mind. Would you be willing to visit a veterinarian with me so that we could get a professional, medical opinion on this matter?”

Skunk, reading the edge of the woods: “Okay, idiot, I tried to warn you . . .”

I could smell the results of the encounter when I got within 20 feet of our apartment door. I think the skunk was right. It sure didn’t smell romantic to me. Have you ever tried to coat a small, smelly dog with tomato juice while standing in the shower?

Busby was great company, and we loved him. He just wasn’t very thoughtful. And we found we could use that to our advantage. It enabled us to train Busby. I taught him to do the whole range of tricks, including rolling over. The only problem was, Busby decided that he didn’t like to roll over. I was offering him little dog treats (cookies) as an inducement, and he would sit, stay, and shake hands for a dog biscuit, but he wouldn’t roll over. The power of the cookie wasn’t strong enough, so I looked for a more powerful cookie.

This was back during the Carter administration. Does anyone else remember the free government cheese given out when Jimmy was president? The stuff we got was incredibly sharp, aged cheddar. It had a really strong odor to it. And I had already found out that Busby loved cheese.

So I offered him sharp, aged cheddar cheese to roll over. You could tell he was tempted, but he stood on his manly principles and refused to yield. What to do? You pick the poor little fellow up, and you begin rubbing the cheese on his nose. Then you slide it under his lips and rub it against his teeth. Keep doing this for awhile, then put the dog back down and offer him cheese if he rolls over.

I swear, the dog spun like a top. Rolled over four or five times in a row non-stop. But he got the cheese. And I got a dog that was conditioned to roll over, even if I didn’t have aged cheddar cheese to offer him. Once the resistance was broken, he was trained. I never had a problem getting him to roll over after that.

The good news is that I loved Busby. I was his friend. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. And it seemed like a fair deal. Someone new would come over, and I’d get a slice of baloney out of the fridge and show them our amazing performing dog. (He could absolutely fly through a hula-hoop.) Our visitor got entertained. I got to show off my amazing dog. And Busby got the baloney. Everyone was happy.

But what if I didn’t really love Busby? What if I was a famous NFL quarterback who loved to watch dogs tear each other to pieces for my entertainment in fighting rings? The same principles used to teach Busby to sit and stay would work just as well if I was programming the dog for destruction. This is because dogs don’t have the capacity to think about the big picture and the long term consequences. All they do is respond to stimuli.

Very early on the fallen angels figured out they could train us the same way we train our dogs. Maybe the actually learned it by watching Adam train a dog while they were watching Cain learn to use a spoon (see the second post in this thread). Cain may very well have been a pilot project. The evil spirits we engage in spiritual war have had thousands of years of experience in training humans, but way back then the whole thing must have seemed very new to them.

Some twisted, evil being noticed that Cain was jealous of all the attention his baby brother Able was getting. And he decided to develop that. Just sort of hang around Cain and try to direct his attention, to focus his thinking on everything annoying about his little brother. It’s kind of like building a fire. You start off by transferring the flame of the match to something that is very, very small. Then you slowly add to the fire, piece by piece, until you get a bonfire going.

“Just look at that, young Cain. Your brother got a piece of cake that was 1/16^th of an inch bigger than your piece last night. Do you think that was an accident? You know your mother likes him better than she likes you. One of these days Able is going to get what he deserves.”

Eventually God himself had to intervene to warn Cain. “Sin is crouching at the door, and it’s desire is for you, but you must master it.” (Gen. 4:7) But Cain didn’t master sin because he didn’t think about the big picture and the long term consequences. He didn’t think about how Able’s death would break his mother’s heart. He didn’t think about the judgment of God. He didn’t think about how his conduct would terrify all of his relatives to the point where they might seek to rise up in judgment and kill him.

All Cain thought about was what Satan wanted to think about and because of that all Cain felt was what Satan wanted him to feel. And the result of all of this was the first murder.

I had to walk away from the keyboard just now. I was overcome by emotion. I knew where I was going when I started to write this piece, but now that it’s time to say what really needs to be said, I’m almost to ashamed to put it into words. Strangely enough, when I walked away from the keyboard, I ended up in the living room. You know what I found there? Three dogs. How ironic is that? So I rubbed some bellies and dolled out some love and here I am now, back at the keyboard. This is what I didn’t want to write. This is what I didn’t want to put in black and white.

There have been times in my life when Satan has grabbed my head and smeared the aged cheddar cheese across my nose. He has stuck it under my lips and rubbed it on my teeth. He has brought me to the point where the cheese was all I was willing to think bout, until I wanted the cheese so bad that I was willing to jump right through Satan’s little hula-hoop like a good doggy so that I could get that piece of cheese.

One of our late night comedians has a little feature he does that he calls “Stupid Pet Tricks.” I almost weep as I write this. He could have fallen angels as guests on his program and they could show him videos of “Stupid Human Tricks.” And I could be in one or more of those videos.

Remember when I told you that the very essence of sin is a kind of moral insanity? Have you ever noticed the first step in the process of repentance in the story of the prodigal son? He was slowly starving to death as he worked as a pig herder. But when he began to think about it, he realized that he could go back to his father’s house and work for him as a hired man. At least he would have enough to eat! He wasn’t worthy to be a son any longer, but he would be infinitely better off if he went back and lived there as a hired hand on the family farm.

What words did our wonderful, all wise Savior use to describe to us the beginning of this repentance process? These words give us deep, deep insight into Jesus’ view of sin. “But when he came to his senses.” (Luke 15:17) He had been acting irrationally. He was mastered by a form of moral insanity. But then he came to his senses!

Let me tell you what I would like to be when I grow up. I would like to be a man who acts less and less like a trained animal, and more and more like a son of the living God.