Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, August 2, 2025
This past Monday morning, on a post-breakfast walk, I spotted this little dog-stocking on a neighborhood sidewalk (I’ve put my Bic pen beside it to give you the scale). I know it’s for a dog and not a baby because of the paw-print design near the toes, and the makers have created a Scottish-tartan look to make it cuter yet.
I grew up as a farm boy with a mongrel dog who would have been intensely puzzled if I had tried to inflict a pair of these upon him. Poochie (yup, that was his name) was an outdoor dog, even in winter, and seemed serenely resigned to that kind of life.
Yet on my walks these days I see these paw-protectors every once in a while. Some of them seem to be made of leather, with tiny laces, and their wearers seem happy with them.
It’s good for a farm boy to learn one of the Bible’s most tender-hearted verses:
A righteous man regards the life of his animal, But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. (Proverbs 12:10 NKJV)
I’m not sure exactly how the verse’s second half meshes with the first (ancient Hebrew farmers probably got the point immediately), but it’s very clear that our kindness should extend even to the animals in our care.
For a few more Bible facts about nature, click the link just below:
https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/nature