October 20, Ordinary 29C (Luke 18:1-8)
Injustice comes with so many alibis and aliases.
She had a cast-iron stomach. Ginger, our golden retriever, ate anything we put in front of her and anything she found. She took such joy in eating that it was hard to deny her, but when she tipped the scales at 80 pounds our veterinarian had a stern talk with me. “You can’t always give her what she wants,” he said.
Ignoring the confused look in Ginger’s eyes, we altered her diet and increased her exercise. Gradually, she lost the extra weight, and I lost interest in monitoring it. As long as neither she nor the vet barked at me again, we were fine.
But around her tenth year, she stopped maintaining her weight. Her soft coat started to thin; her bright eyes to dim. In desperation, we fed her anything she wanted, but she wanted nothing. She no longer licked the dirty dishes in the dishwasher or slowly swept the kitchen floor with her long tail, waiting for morsels to drop from above. Within months, she was rangy and ribbed.
