There has been a great deal of attention paid to an article in the New York Times this past week about dogs having emotions. I think that sells dogs short. They not only have emotions but they have personalities, skills, and interests. Some might say they are healers. I fall into that group.

Eleven months ago I suffered a debilitating, and seemingly intolerable heart injury. My girl Maisie was going downhill fast and I knew that our time together was going to be very limited. The ache in my heart spread throughout my body and threatened to claim my creativity and joy as well.

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God, however, had different plans for me. He provided a 30 pound heart surgeon to take care of my wounds. But there was a condition – I had to heal her wounded heart as well.

Doctor Stormy.

During the past nine months the two of us have been on a journey of exploration, healing, and growing love. For a very long time she avoided me. I got it, she had been wounded at some point by a man. Whether it was from lack of love or abuse didn’t matter. She feared me.

Over many months I proved my trustworthiness to her and she slowly opened her medical skill bag and tended to my heart. I now know that the love I had with Maisie isn’t a realistic goal with Stormy. Instead, and perhaps even better, we have a mutual trust building that will continue to blossom. Is it love? I think so. She comes for pets, she sleeps on the bed with me or waits outside my door when I’m sleeping during the day. She bares her stomach and her tail falls limp on the floor when she asks for a tummy rub. The tense, fearful, sad little dog that came to live with us a few days before Christmas has morphed into a skilled heart surgeon who’s putting the final stitches in my wound.

That wound will always leave a scar. The scar will be noticed from time to time. But the doctor stands ready to treat me when the need arises.

I’m not going to run out on the limb with some others and say that dogs and cats are the equals of humans and need to have legal rights just the same as ours. That strikes me as rather silly.

However, the requirement levied upon us by God to treat the creatures as our dominion weighs heavily on the human race. We are entrusted with their care and well-being. It is a sin to be cruel to animals. It is a waste to not love them when they love us. Once we understand that our lives will improve as will theirs.

Some questions arise out of all of this – the main one being the issue of animal testing. I think that part of that dominion that God gave us includes using animals to better our lives as food, companions, working beasts, and test subjects. The need to avoid wanton cruelty is paramount. I know that will not settle easily on some minds. It does mean that some animals will be lost in an attempt to make human life safer and longer. Like all things in this world, we will discriminate and rank the importance of those animals on a scale unique to each of us. And to God we will answer on the final day.

For now, I’m just glad to be under the care of a sentient being known as Stormy. She’s providing the medical treatment my heart needs after losing two of my closest friends in under a year. She’s a good doctor. And I hope that I’m treating her wounds properly as well. It seems that I am: that tail wags once again after a long period of dormancy.

Dogs have emotions. People have emotions. And if we care for one another all of us are that much better off in the end.

Do you share that heartfelt love with a companion animal? Is there a 30 pound heart surgeon in your life?