In Florida, I could see the aninhgas drying their wings in the sun after a good dive in the lake in front of my apartment. I miss that. Birds know how to be thankful and praise God.

Almost anywhere you can see the grackles at the parking lots of stores that have food, waiting for a piece of pizza or a cookie to be dropped, or thrown away by people that don’t care about being polite. They fly and walk on top of the cars and observe these humans that are so ungrateful to God. But they enjoy the wait and then praise the Lord singing on a tree branch and pooping on the cars of people that don’t drop anything for them to feast on.

Birds are grateful to God because he provides for them.

Animals, in general, seem to be very grateful when humans treat them well. In Genesis God told humans to take care of animals. Genesis 1: 27 And God made man in His own likeness. In the likeness of God He made him. He made both male and female. 28 And God wanted good to come to them, saying, “Give birth to many. Grow in number. Fill the earth and rule over it. Rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Of course, Adam betrayed the trust God had put in Him (he blamed the woman, of course) and, I guess, the relationship between men and animals was broken.

However, animals befriend other animals that are not of their own species. My mother enjoyed telling me about the friendship of a Great Dane named Manon and Keti, a titi monkey, my grandfather had at his property. Since the monkey was a little misbehaved, when my grandfather or my mother and her sisters were out, she was usually chained in a room in the basement of the house. The basement had a window with iron bars so she could not go between them. The window overlooked the big orchard in the back of the house. Keti would sit at the window holding one of the bars and call the Great Dane to come near the window. Then the titi would chatter in the ear of Manon, and the dog would trot toward the orchard where she would find an apple or a peach and bring it quickly to the monkey. Keti then would pet Manon, kiss her and proceed to eat the fruit.

When Keti and Manon were free to play inside the house, the titi would mount the Great Dane and have a ball running up and down stairs and making joyous little sounds.

Mother said that the titi was also very observant and, seeing my mother and my aunts kneeling and saying their prayers before going to bed, she would also do that and spend a minute or two thanking God every night.

My paternal grandmother had 2 big Great Danes, Vio and Amigo. One was white with large brown spots and the other was brown with small white spots. They did everything together. I don’t know if they were of the same litter but they had been together since they were puppies. My grandfather had much fun giving them a piece of sugar and telling them to take it to the horses. Of course, the sugar was fast melted when they reached the corrals, so the horses licked the dogs muzzles. They both seemed to enjoy it. When nobody was around, the dogs would go visit the horses at the corral and bring them fruits.

I was surprised several times to also see my grandmother’s barn cats going to visit the cows and allowing them to lick them. Cows seemed to really enjoy the cat purring.

Animals make excellent examples for us to follow. “However, Christians are like crawfish; they have their arms up but they walk backwards.” (Jesse Duplantis).