{"id":2772,"date":"2019-10-26T10:09:09","date_gmt":"2019-10-26T14:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/?p=2772"},"modified":"2019-10-26T10:11:23","modified_gmt":"2019-10-26T14:11:23","slug":"blessings-in-tooth-and-claw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/?p=2772","title":{"rendered":"Blessings in Tooth and Claw"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Buster thinks you’re never too big to be a lap dog<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Living in a small house with two big dogs can be challenging.  At 123 and 152 pounds, Joy and Buster Brown (aka \u201cBuzzard\u201d) are not easily ignored.   You can\u2019t lock them in a little dog carrier.  You can\u2019t really hold them in your lap, even if they want you to. It\u2019s difficult to put anything out of their reach.  And I\u2019m still doubting the wisdom in teaching Joy to open the refrigerator.  Life with two big dogs is just crazy sometimes.  But the other day, I thought of something even crazier.  Why don\u2019t people keep 150 pound cats in their house?   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine what it would be like to live with two Mountain\nLions in your house.  They are in the\nsame weight class as our dogs.  They have\nteeth that could chew you to bits, and claws that could rip you to shreds.  They have more than enough strength and\nweight to pounce on you, knock you to the floor, and literally bite your neck\noff.  But strangely, none of this is the\nreason people don\u2019t live with 150 pound cats. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A Happy Buzzard<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Buster Brown has teeth that could chew me to bits.  He has claws that could rip my flesh.  He can and has knocked me down on occasion\nwhen we run and play.  My arm fits inside\nhis powerful jaw.  I know because I\u2019ve\nhad it there.  Just this morning, he had\nmy wrist in his mouth.  One crunch and I\nwould be without a hand.  Either Buster\nBrown or Joy could probably kill me if they wanted to.  Both together certainly could.  So why do people live with big dogs but not\nbig cats?  It\u2019s not the size, teeth, and\nclaws that count.  It\u2019s something\nelse.  It really comes down to one\nthing.  Trust. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t trust Buster with my dinner on the table.  I don\u2019t trust Joy with the refrigerator open.  I don\u2019t trust either of them with fried chicken scraps in the garbage.  But when we are playing and tussling around the house, when Joy grabs my arm in her big jaw to try to pull me outside to play, when I go to sleep at night and leave the bedroom door open for them to come in at any time, I\u2019m trusting them with my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know my dogs aren\u2019t perfect.  But I also know they respect me as\nmaster.  They know I am lord of the house.  They trust me to lead the small pack that is\nour family.  In their own way, and in at least\nsome sense of the word, they love me. \nAnd I love them.  And because I\ncan trust them to love and respect me, they enjoy the blessings of my love, and\nmy house.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Buster and Joy Sharing a Bed . . .But wait. Why does Buster have my shoe?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Living in a small house with two big dogs can be challenging.  At 123 and 152 pounds, Joy and Buster Brown (aka \u201cBuzzard\u201d) are not easily ignored.   You can\u2019t lock them in a little dog carrier.  You can\u2019t really hold them in your lap, even if they want you to. It\u2019s difficult to put anything […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[368,203,367,262],"class_list":["post-2772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc","tag-big-cats","tag-blessings","tag-great-danes","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2772"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2781,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772\/revisions\/2781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}