Where Dogs and Salvation Meet

While visiting my local library Saturday, the cover shot of an Australian Shepherd mix caught my eye. The book title was Blind Hope: An Unwanted Dog & the Woman She Rescued. I grabbed the little paperback and added it to my stack—without bothering to read the testimonials for it or identify its publisher.

It was a fast read and proof that we can analyze anything and everything and extract a lesson from it; proof that meaning and purpose surround us. Blind Hope’s authors, Kim Meeder and Laurie Sacher, drew lessons about God (and trust and love) from the figurative and literal darkness experienced by a woman and her dog.

If you need evidence that animals can be a bridge between despair and a life worth living, you’ll find it in Blind Hope and in Meeder’s previous books about her Oregon sanctuary for kids and horses, Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch. If you’re trawling for ideas to help you with your next sermon or God/faith-related presentation, Blind Hope can deliver. But if you prefer your dog dramas delivered through sparkling prose sans religion, Blind Hope is not for you. There’s a lot more God than Dog between its covers.

That said, I’m still glad I read it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have the gorgeous pic posted here of two Crystal Peaks horses; I wouldn’t know about Meeder’s valuable work with children and equines; and I wouldn’t have been directed to Project POOCH, a program that teaches incarcerated juveniles how to train and care for rescued dogs.

Likewise, I’m grateful to another book I happened upon at the library—Steven D. Price’s The Greatest Horse Stories Ever Told—for introducing me to several new authors and for giving me a new perspective on a favorite (old) one.

One thing leads to another, doesn’t it? Even a ho-hum read can expand our worlds.

[Photo of red merle Australian Shepherd from a back issue of the SPITZ Newsletter.]