Catholic hounds, catholic cats

Catholic dachshund stories are thin at the moment, so this will need to do. 

The ‘cats v dogs’ arguments go on.  Not bothered by the ‘I’m just so independent’ card commonly played by the cats and their admirers, I side with the heroic loyalty of the hounds.  

It is also comforting to note that even though dogs return to the earth upon death, unable to enjoy eternity, so powerful and ageless is their example of faithfulness and loyalty that this trait finds itself expressed in the Church - as an example for us - through religious art, the lives of certain saints and in the gospel itself.  Three of my  favourite instances (sadly, none – at least expressly - involving a dachshund) are given below. 

Matthew 15:27 -  the Canaanite woman implores the Lord for mercy for her possessed daughter. Jesus questions her, asking if it is fair to take food from children (the Israelites) only to toss it to something lowly - a dog (the gentile). The lady, seizing on the example of the faithful yet lowly dog, famously answers (indeed addresses God directly with the words) that even lowly dogs are allowed to eat the scraps which fall from their master’s table. This will be enough for her.

Next, St John Bosco’s heaven-sent protector – the dog Grigio.  What a moment when  good Grigio must prevent his master from leaving his house one night as men lay in ambush for the saint. The dog having to snarl and snap. In a sense, this dog’s real master was from above, but nonetheless I sometimes think of the psychological confusion that the animal must have been under having to disobey his earthly mastery in order to serve his heavenly one – something Grigio was not fully able to communicate. True loyalty.

Finally, the artistic representations of St Dominic accompanied by a dog holding a flaming torch. The connection traces back to a story of the saint’s mother while pregnant having a vision of a dog with a flaming torch in its mouth, lighting up the world.  St Dominic’s name, and the Dominican order, are apparently susceptible to a play on words in Latin to mean ‘dog of the Lord’. There is an image of St Dominic with his dog in a stained glass window in St Patrick’s, Church Hill, Sydney. It always gave me some comfort to look up and see a dog, a creature whose faithful nature is well known, used in the church.