Dog Prayers

DOG PRAYERS


DOG LETTERS TO GOD

author unknown


Dear God,
How come people love to smell flowers, but seldom, if ever, smell one another?  Where are their priorities?

Dear God,
When we get to Heaven, can we sit on your couch?  Or is it the same old story?

Dear God,
Excuse me, but why are there cars named after the jaguar, the cougar, the mustang, the colt, the stingray, and the rabbit, but not one named for a dog?

How often do you see a cougar riding around?  We dogs love a nice ride!

I know every breed cannot have its own model, but it would be easy to rename the Chrysler Eagle the Chrysler Beagle!

Dear God,
If a dog barks his head off in the forest and no human hears him, is he still a bad dog?

Dear God,
When my foster mom’s friend comes over to our house, he smells like musk!  What’s he been rolling around in?

Dear God,
Is it true that in Heaven, dining room tables have on-ramps?

Dear God,
If we come back as humans, is that good or bad?

Dear God,
More meatballs, less spaghetti, please.

Dear God,
When we get to the Pearly Gates, do we have to shake hands to get in?

Dear God,
We dogs can understand human verbal instructions, hand signals, whistles, horns, clickers, beepers, scent IDs, electromagnetic energy fields, and Frisbee flight paths.  What do humans understand?

Dear God,
Are there dogs on other planets, or are we alone?

I have been howling at the moon and stars for a long time, but all I ever hear back is the Dobie across the street.

Dear God,
Are there mailmen in Heaven?  If there are, will I have to apologize? 🙂

Dear God,
Is it true that dogs are not allowed in restaurants because we can’t make up our minds what NOT to order?  Or is it the carpets again?

Dear God,
When my family eats dinner they always bless their food.  But they never bless mine.

So, I’ve been wagging my tail extra fast when they fill my bowl.

Have you noticed my own blessing?

Dear God,
I’ve always lived at the shelter and I have everything I need. But many of the cats here have names and I don’t.

Could you give me a name please?  It would be good for my self-esteem.

Dear God,
Being a German Shepherd is kind of scary! People think I am mean and all I want to do is lick their face???

Dear God,
The new terrier I live with just peed on the Oriental rug and I have a feeling my family might blame me ‘cuz they think I’m jealous of this stupid dog.

Since they have no sense of smell, how can I convince them I’m innocent?  Does PetsMart sell lie detectors?

 

Hear our humble prayer, O God,

for our friends the animals,

especially for animals who are suffering;

for any that are hunted or lost, or deserted or frightened or hungry;

for all that must be put to death.

We entreat for them all thy mercy and pity a

and for those who deal with them we ask a

heart of compassion and gentle hands and kindly words.

Make us, ourselves, to be true friends to animals

and so to share the blessings of the merciful.

Albert Schweitzer

 A DOG’S PRAYER FOR HIS OWNER

Anonymous

O Lord of humans, make my master faithful to his fellow men as I am to him. Grant that he may be as devoted to his friends and family as I am to him.

May he be openfaced and undeceptive as I am; may he be true to trust reposed in him as I am to his.

Give him a face cheerful like unto my wagging tail. Give him a spirit of gratitude like unto my flicking tongue.

Fill him with patience like unto mine that awaits his footsteps uncomplainingly for hours.

Fill him with my watchfulness, my courage, and my readiness to sacrifice comfort or life itself.

Keep him always young in heart and endowed with the spirit of play, as I am.

Make him as good a man as I am a dog. And make him worthy of me, his dog.

Amen.

A DOG’S PRAYER FOR HIMSELF

by Beth Norman Harris

Treat me kindly, my beloved master, for no heart in all the world is more grateful for kindness than the loving heart of me.

Do not break my spirit with a stick, for though I should lick your hand between the blows, your patience and understanding will more quickly teach me the things you would have me do.

Speak to me often, for your voice is the world’s sweetest music, as you must know by the fierce wagging of my tail when your footstep falls upon my waiting ear.

When it’s cold and wet, please take me inside … for I am now a domesticated animal, no longer used to bitter elements … and I ask no greater glory than the privilege of sitting at your feet beside the hearth … though had you no home, I would rather follow you through ice and snow than rest upon the softest pillow in the warmest home in all the land … for you are my god … and I am your devoted worshipper.

Keep my pan filled with fresh water, for although I should not reproach you were it dry, I cannot tell you when I suffer thirst.

Feed me clean food, that I may stay well, to romp and play and do your bidding, to walk by your side, and stand ready, willing and able to protect you with my life, should your life be in danger.

And, beloved master, should the Great Master see fit to deprive me of my health or sight, do not turn me away from you. Rather hold me gently in your arms as skilled hands grant me the merciful boon of eternal rest … and I will leave you knowing with the last breath I drew, my fate was ever safest in your hands.

A DOG’S BEST FRIEND

by an unknown dog owner

O Lord, don’t let me once forget,

How I love my trusty pet –

Help me learn to disregard

canine craters in my yard.

Show me how to be a buddy

even when my sofa’s muddy.

Don’t allow my pooch to munch

postal carriers for lunch.

Shield my neighbor’s cat from view,

guide my steps around the doo.

Train me not to curse and scowl

when it’s puppy’s night to howl.

Grant I shan’t awake in fear

with a cold nose in my ear.

Give me patience without end –

Help me be “A DOG’S BEST FRIEND.”

Who Leads Who Into Heaven?

author unknown

It was another Christmas day
And God looked out to see
What scripture promise came to pass,
What promise would not be.

And turning aside, HE turned his eyes
To those who’d dwell inside,
To those who’d warm by Heaven’s hearth
And those who’d be denied.

And HE saw a man at St. Peter’s gate,
A mongrel dog at his feet,
And a line that reached to the dark of night
As far as the eye could see.

And St. Peter looked at the disheveled two
And challenged the wretch to say,
What deeds he’d done, what praise he’d won
To walk in Heaven’s way.

And the vagrant stood in his shabby robe
And not one word he spoke,
As though he heard not a single word
This man in the tattered cloak.

“What deeds have you done to think you’ve won
The grace of Heaven’s line?
What honors earned? What evils spurned?
Pray help me be inclined.”

But the wretched soul and his shepherd hound
Stayed on without a sound
As though no deed could come to mind,
As though no reason found.

“Can you not find one deed so fine,
To merit entrance here?
Can none attest some honored quest,
A challenge still unclear?”

And still he stood and but held the leash
That stayed the mongrel hound.
Until he knelt to feel the ground
And kiss the furry crown.

As love was cast in skin and bone,
He held the dog around,
And Heaven watched and Heaven judged
This vagabond and his hound.

“What seeds were sowed that a flower’d grow
When you’d depart the scene?
A single tree? One slave made free?
One clean and shining sea?

Was not one life made free of strife

Along the path you strolled?
Was not one child encouraged to smile?
No good that can be told?”

And all looked on at the vagabond
Who held the unkempt hound.
But not one voice to sway the choice,
No plaintiff voice was found.

And when at last, his patience past,
St. Peter bid unkind
And motioned on to the dark beyond,
“No reason you can find?”

“Not one but simple virtue be
That all of us may see?
Not one redeeming act of faith
Did bring you here to me?

In all your time can you not find
One voice for yours to plea?
In all your time can you not find
One voice to vouch for thee?”

And now at last his time though past,
The vagabond turned to speak;
And his eyes were filled with tears that spilled
And coursed the craggy cheeks.

And from his heart the speech did start
To argue not his sake,
But to plead the cause of the mongrel dog,
That lay in Heaven’s wake.

“Perhaps it ain’t for me to see
The paradise within.
I was a simple soul on earth
This hound’s my only kin.

But if the children’s smiles count,
His cup’s filled to the brim.
Oh, I can vouch for this hound, your grace.
I can vouch for him.

You should’ a seen them laugh and run
When he was all their game.
You should’ a seen the love he gave
And never once complain.

And when the tide of time arose
And naught was there to eat,
He shared the taste of an empty plate
And stayed at these failing feet.

It ain’t for me,” he whispered soft,

“It ain’t for me I ask.
But don’t deprive this poor old hound

For what his master lacks.

If caring and sharing and loyalty
Are virtues of your size,
Consider one who lacks of none,
Let Heaven be his prize.

It matters not what comes of me,
Or what may come about.
But it just ain’t fair. It wouldn’t be fair
To keep my poor hound out.

No friend has ever been so true.
No man has walked a line,
Who never strayed, but not this dog,
This hound that I call mine.”

His fingers stroked the shaggy coat
And the dog licked back the hand;
And as much was said in the silence there,
Than since God’s quest began.

And then abrupt, the hound looked up
And labored with its head
To lick this face of human grace,
This man of tattered thread.

And suddenly a calm would be
That tethered every sound.
And a warm breeze blew that embraced the two,
This vagabond and his hound.

And St. Peter turned to the mist beyond
And paused with uplifted head.
To heed the voice of Almighty God
And to do as HE has said.

I’ve set the task and I have asked
For virtues held and shared.
To dwell in a world of every kind
And for every kind have cared.

And now I’ve seen dimensions dreamed
That seldom I’ve seen before,
A simple man and his faithful hound,
Denied at my own door?”

With pen in hand, St. Peter began
To enter on his list,
The names of those whom God had chosen
To dwell in Heaven’s bliss.

And one belonged to a vagabond
And the other he called his kin;
The man who vouched for an old hound dog
And the hound dog who vouched for him.

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