It is so much fun to play with my dog Charlie, a little white Maltese. When I hold up a treat, he stands on his hind legs and dances. He is so cute! 

One day Charlie was attacked by a coyote in our backyard. Our daughter found him lying on the grass. The picture was grim. A favorite hymn by Mary Baker Eddy that begins “O gentle presence, peace and joy and power” (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 207) immediately sang in our hearts, and this helped us feel that God’s peace and joy and power were right with us. Our daughter and Charlie were both calm and quiet.

One of the first things we did was to love that coyote! In the Bible, the first chapter of Genesis says that God created every creature that moves, and that everything He created is good. We felt God was loving both Charlie and the coyote, so we could, too. We could see that both animals could live harmoniously together in the way described in the book of Isaiah: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together” (11:6). We also remembered that Mrs. Eddy says in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “The divine Love, which made harmless the poisonous viper, which delivered men from the boiling oil, from the fiery furnace, from the jaws of the lion, can heal the sick in every age and triumph over sin and death” (p. 243). We could just take the teeth out of this situation and know that the jaws of the coyote had no effect on Charlie’s spiritual being. By the time we got Charlie to the emergency veterinarian, the wounds were already scabbing over.

The vet cleaned the wounds, but he was overwhelmed with how bad the injuries appeared, including a possible broken back, and felt there was little hope that Charlie would survive. We mentally reversed this thought and knew that Charlie’s spiritual identity was safe and sound. He was not made up of blood and bones. He was God’s perfect, spiritual creation. We agreed that the vet could take an X-ray. When he did, we all saw that there were absolutely no broken bones. 

The vet suggested Charlie stay in the hospital so the vet could administer painkillers and antibiotics. But Charlie was already calm and quiet, so we decided to take him home. The vet told us Charlie’s front legs were paralyzed, but we signed some release papers, and took him home.

We put Charlie in a laundry basket on a soft blanket, and since he could not walk, we fed him water and food by hand. Our daughter ordered a little carrier online to hold him up, as it did seem that his legs were frozen. I laid him on his soft blanket in a wagon and took him on his usual walk through the neighborhood that way.

For two days we prayed. And then this statement from Science and Health came to thought: “The illusion of material sense, not divine law, has bound you, entangled your free limbs, crippled your capacities, enfeebled your body, and defaced the tablet of your being” (p. 227). This trauma was an illusion. God created Charlie as a unique spiritual idea expressing affection, loyalty, and joy. We realized that what we saw in this material picture was a misrepresentation of his true, spiritual identity. Nothing could deface the tablet of Charlie’s being. We could simply delete the grim picture from our consciousness, like deleting a photo from a phone, and replace it with the truth that Charlie had never been touched by violence.

On the third day, I left Charlie in his basket by my husband’s desk as he worked, and I went about my daily business feeling that God was taking good care of everything.

My husband soon sent an email to the family that said, “Charlie is back!” He said it was as if Charlie just “woke up.” He suddenly leaped out of the basket, ran to the back door, and then ran right outside. My husband couldn’t keep up with him! Later, when we were all home, Charlie kept licking us, as if to say, “I love you!” We felt a special bond with him. Our neighbors did, too. When I walked Charlie down the street on his leash, the neighbors smiled and said, “There goes that miracle dog!” 

This healing experience continues to bring hope and strength to our family, reminding us that when facing difficulties, we can reverse the picture of error and stick to the truth of God’s spiritual, perfect creation.

Kristin Bennett 
Arcadia, California, US