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Monday, December 15, 2014

A Pagan Terrier?

"Did either of you put Josie's toy on my altar?"

This question was addressed to my mom and brother. Of course I knew that the answer was no, but I still wanted to ask. But let's back up just a bit.

You can imagine my surprise when I was laboring over an essay and happened to glance over at my altar to see something odd on it. At first I thought that my oil warmer was somehow broken, since it's black and the toy next to it was also black. When I realized that the warmer wasn't damaged I stared at the toy trying to figure out what it was. Hey, it was facing me at an odd angle, and it wasn't where I expected a toy to be.

But, sure enough, Josie had put one of her toys on my altar.

Not just on my altar, but at the very back and more or less center of the altar. Sure it's only at knee level, but being a terrier mix Josie is a smaller dog. She must have gotten on her hind legs to reach back there. Which would be easy enough for her to do, but it would have been less effort to put it on the edge of the altar. Or, you know, drop the toy on the floor. Like I'm pretty sure most normal dogs do.

Maybe Josie was making offerings to the gods? Should I be worried? What god was she petitioning, and what for?

Josie getting tummy rubs from me