On Thanksgiving of 2011, I was invited to visit the McCauley family in my parish in Baker City, who are always happy to see me with plenty of relatives, some of whom I knew from my former parish in John Day. They always like to sit around me and hear stories from the days in New York and Malta, but the funniest incident happened with their dogs that day. They love animals and there must have been 4 or 5 dogs in the house, all well-behaved, until two of them got into a vicious fight over something. It could have been food or one of them bumped into the other. These were two small dogs, a Shit-Zu and a boxer. It only lasted 4 to 6 seconds, but they were at it in a most terrifying way, not knowing if they were going to kill each other or survive. It was so sudden and caught everyone by surprise. When their owners separated them, the boxer came near me and in the cutest way, he put his paws on my thigh, with his sad sorrowful eyes. Al McCauley was next to me and he could not resist laughing hysterically as he said “Oh my goodness, he wants to go to confession!” And so to continue the scene, I started talking to him as I caressed him on his head....”Are you sorry?.... Why did you do it?....Are you gonna fight again?......OK, I forgive you.....” At each phrase he looked at me with pity and extreme remorse as if he was a penitent in the confessional! Just before I finished I told him “And now for your penance, stay away from meat for the next three months!” When I finished, he got down and went in the corner by himself, as everyone joined in the laughter. It was one of those scenes that makes you love animals, especially dogs who can be so loving and tender and can almost speak to you. This was the case with this boxer - he mimicked a confession and if he could talk, he was really telling me that he’s sorry, his eyes showing remorse, guilt and pain, all of which were forgiven by this once-in-a-lifetime dog-confession.
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