Chapter 5:
Teachings And Lessons From Animals
When facing adversity: are you a Chihuahua or a Leopard?
A lady takes her pet Chihuahua with her on a safari holiday. Wandering too far one day, the Chihuahua gets lost in the bush and soon encounters a very hungry looking leopard. The Chihuahua realizes he's in trouble, but, noticing some fresh bones on the ground, he settles down to chew on them, with his back to the big cat. As the leopard is about to leap, the Chihuahua smacks his lips and exclaims loudly, "Boy, that was one delicious leopard. I wonder if there are any more around here!" The leopard stops mid-stride, and slinks away into the trees.
"Phew," says the leopard, "that was close - that evil little dog nearly had me."
A monkey nearby sees everything and thinks he'll win a favor by putting the stupid leopard straight. The Chihuahua sees the monkey go after the leopard, and guesses he might be up to no good. When the leopard hears the monkey's story he feels angry at being made a fool, and offers the monkey a ride back to see him exact his revenge.
The little dog sees them approaching and fears the worst. Thinking quickly, the little dog turns his back, pretends not to notice them, and when the pair is within earshot says aloud, "Now where's that monkey got to? I sent him ages ago to bring me another leopard...."
The Big Leap
Two frogs fell into a deep pit, and though they tried very hard they could not hop out. Their comrades peered down from the top and croaked in sympathy.
"We feel for you," they shouted, “but there's no way you can get out from there!"
On hearing this, one of the frogs lost heart, and died of fear. The other frog was deaf. He thought his comrades were shouting encouragement. Emboldened by their faith in him, he gathered up all his reserves of energy in one great jump that landed him out of the pit.
Hang on to your own bone
Fanny the farm dog was pretty smart, but one day she got the shock of her life because no-one had ever told her about mirrors.
As a special treat, she was given a big bone. She took it down to the river bank to enjoy it in peace. As she stood there with the bone in her mouth, she looked at her reflection in the water. And what did she see? Another dog with a bone in its mouth! She wanted the other bone as well as her own, so she opened her mouth to bark and her bone fell straight in and sank to the bottom.
The rooster makes its last mistake
Two burglars were prowling around a barn one night. They could hear something moving inside, and ever so carefully they climbed in to see what it was. It was a rooster. "Ah-ha," they cried. "This will do for our supper tomorrow." They grabbed it and were about to kill it when the rooster squawked in alarm: "Please don't kill me. I can be useful to you. I can wake you at dawn every day, ready to start work on time."
"That's just what we don't want," growled the burglars. "If you wake people up they'll catch us robbing their houses." So that was the end of the rooster.
The jealous goat
A goat and a donkey lived on the same farm. The goat had to find his own food, but because he made the donkey work hard, the farmer fed him. The goat became jealous, forgetting the entire donkey's hard work. He thought if the donkey stopped working, he would get his food. So he pushed him into a large hole, and he was badly hurt. The farmer sent for the vet, who examined the donkey. "The quickest way to make him better," he said, "is to feed him with goat soup." So instead of getting the donkey's food for himself, the goat finished up as food for the donkey!
Look before you eat
You know what dogs are like. If you drop a bit of food from the table they shallow it before they know what it is. But sometimes they wish they hadn't. Fanny the farm dog wasn't allowed in while her master Josh was eating with the family. But one day she crept in and hid under the table when no-one was looking.
She kept very quiet until suddenly a big dollop of food fell next to her. She gobbled it up without thinking. Then she let out a big bowl and rushed outside, holding her tummy with one paw. The family was eating a very hot curry for supper!
One good turn deserves another
Fred was a farm-worker who found a young eagle caught in a trap. He couldn't bear to see such a beautiful bird in pain, so he released it. A few days later, he was sitting in the shade of an old wall, having bread and cheese for his lunch. Suddenly, with a flapping of wings, the eagle swooped and stole the cap from his head. It flew away just above the ground with Fred rushing after it, shouting, until it dropped his cap. Fred put it back on his head and trudged back to finish his lunch. But what do you think? Exactly where he had been sitting the old wall had collapsed! Each of them had saved the other.
How to live in peace
In the old days, farmers sometimes encouraged snakes and weasels to live in the barn and kill the mice that ate their corn. But on one farm there was a bad-tempered weasel and a peppery old snake, and instead of killing the mice they kept fighting each other. The mice thought this was wonderful, of course. At first, they just put their heads cautiously out of their holes to watch.
Before long, they began to form a circle around the two fighters and cheer for one side or the other. For a while, the snake and the weasel were so busy scrapping they didn't even notice. One day, however, they stopped for a rest in the middle of a particularly tiring fight. They looked around them and then at each other. "Why are we wasting so much eating time," they asked themselves. "There's enough food here to make us fat and good-tempered." And they set about gobbling up the mice.
Animals Are Parents Too
I want to let you know about an event that changed my life many years ago. It is a memory that periodically comes and goes, but it is one of the most precious memories that me and my wife share. I am thankful that we can remember it together. It's a reminder that things are not what they seem and that angels come in many packages.
We live in College Station, Texas and we were on our way home from Houston, Texas around the Weston Lakes area one Saturday or Sunday morning. And when I say morning, I'm talking 1:00 to 2:00 in the morning. We were on our way home and decided to stop at a local gas station to get coffee and something to snack on since it was a good hour and a half before we got home.
When we were done, we got back into our car and before I started it, we noticed a man standing outside in front of the building. You could tell that he was a homeless man. His clothes were tattered and worn and it looked like he had gone in and gotten him some coffee or something warm to drink since it was cold this time of the year. He must have not had enough money to get something to eat. That is not something I remember too well, because that is not what "moved" me.
The next thing I remember is a dog that walked up to the front of the building. Being a dog lover, I noticed that she was part wolf and probably part German shepherd. I could tell she was a she, because you could tell that she had been feeding puppies. She was terribly in need of something to eat and I felt so bad for her. I knew if she didn't eat soon, she and her puppies would not make it.
Me and my wife sat there and looked at her. We noticed that people walked by and didn't even pet her, like most people do when they walk by an animal in front of a store. She might not have been as pretty and clean as most, but she still deserved better. But we still did not do anything. But someone did. The homeless man, who I thought did not buy himself anything to eat, went back into the store. And what he did brought tears to me and my wife. He had gone into the store and with what money he may have had, bought a can of dog food and fed that dog.
I know that this story isn't as inspirational as most stories, but it plays a great part in our lives. You see, that was Mother's Day weekend. And a lot of people forget that some animals are parents too. And animals as well as we are God's creations too.
It would be a better story if I could remember all the details, but even without the details, I believe it still gets the message across. It took a homeless man, to show me what I should have done. He made me a better man that day.