in the beginning

For the many years that Dexter, and then Comet lived with us, I now wonder whether I was in charge of our “pack”. While I subscribe to the idea that God created the universe and a man to look after a self-sustaining garden, I have a little trouble with the idea that the man needed help with the things God planned for him to do. Yesterday, I chuckled thinking that it may have been a man’s distractable nature (has a man ever been able to tear himself away from a dog’s game of “fetch the ball”?) that God designed a helper for Adam to complete tasks. But, once Eve became Adam’s “help-mate”, the dog sensed which of the creatures was more likely to consistently feed it and give it a clean comfortable bed to sleep upon. In hindsight, perhaps I was dog-walker and kept the yard poop-free at the suggestion of the dog to the woman. Perhaps that is why, for 14 years, Dexter looked at me when I called him or corrected him, but then looked to the woman for confirmation that he should listen to me.