By Jen Rinaldi

Their form is portrayed in the form of petroglyphs pecked into the rocks at Shuwaymus in Saudi Arabia, to Cave paintings in France, Africa, Indonesia, and the Americas. With mentions in the bible and the Quran, he is a symbol that represents a partnership between animal and man. Despite criticism from religions or occasionally one’s neighbors, they have remained a constant in our lives. Primitive and domestic canines have been acknowledged for hundreds of years in images created by us portraying our love and devotion to them. 

Early images roughly painted with minerals and charcoal show dogs with tightly curled tails, sometimes on leashes and sometimes loose, helping hunters provide for their families. 

The ochre shape of a human and a canine from the Lascaux caves comes to mind because it is iconic, so indicative of today, A man and dog together — a connection — unbreakable through time. What a poignant image of where we began our walk together 30,000 years ago.

Even though dogs get a bad rap in biblical texts both Christian and Muslim as being associated with filth and evil forces, canines persevered in the images created of them, living on the fringes of society while always helping from a distance. Among the Bedouin tribes of the Sinai, wild Canaan dogs still guard and protect livestock. Rock carvings from Har Harif, first to third century CE, show Canaan dogs chasing ibex even though these dogs still live on the fringes of their society. 

The Persian Zoroastrians of the fifth to third centuries BC revered dogs and often buried dogs in special dog cemeteries. One of the largest of these was in the city of Ashkelon in Israel. More than 1,300 dogs were buried there, most of them puppies. The cause of death was not sacrificial and is believed to have been because the dogs lived before veterinarians. These primitive dogs were close relatives to the modern Canaan Dog. 

St. Francis made it his mission to communicate with animals and between him and the dog’s cousin, the wolf a truce was forged between us opening the way to a deepening understanding between man and beast. Images of St. Francis and the wolf from Gubbio are still popular today.

In one of the few positive pieces in the bible that mentions dogs is the curious story of Tobias and the Archangel Raphael in the Old Testament. Tobit asks for an Angelic companion to escort his son Tobias on a journey. The escort is granted much to the relief of Tobias’s mother who is reassured that her son will have not one but two guardians, an angel with wings and one with a tail.

Dogs were seen in art as healers by the natural properties of their tongue, Lazarus’s wounds were licked and he was healed by dogs that may have been Canaan dogs. When it came to depicting dogs in medieval art, the dog took on some of its classical attributes of watchfulness and fidelity. In the Renaissance dogs were often painted next to married women, symbolizing the woman’s faithfulness. 

Black and white dogs became symbols of the Dominican order or St. Dominic. This is in part due to a Latin phrase (Domini canes, “dogs of the Lord”) that closely resembles the Latin name of a Dominican friar (Dominicanus). There is a story from the life of St. Dominic that said his mother had a dream that she would give birth to a dog with a torch in its mouth that would set the world on fire.

English poet Francis Thompson is well known for his poem “The Hound of Heaven,” which pictures God as a dog who looks for souls to bring to heaven. God after all is Dog spelled backwards.

I like to think that early on there was a tangible connection between us. A spark of the divine calling for us to walk together. Their intelligence — the look in their eyes that belies a protective nature and loyalty that their counterparts the felines rarely afford us. Cats can be loyal, offering us many of the same attributes that we find in dogs, the difference being that cats flatly refuse to perform on command as dogs do.

I say this with great humor. Our Canaan dog will perform all his rally moves for anyone who will watch him, while our cats run at the first sign of a guest. Our dog and cats have a stable relationship, but many dog and cat households coexist only through an unstable truce between the mystical and maniacal cat, and the loving protective willing-to-do-anything-for-you canine. 

As much as our Burmese cat Elle and our 20-pound rescue cat Zac strive to please us, when the doorbell rings, it’s our dog that answers the call, ready to meet friend or foe. Zac as big as he is will gladly hide all day long if he senses a change in the force…Sully his dog brother is always ready to protect the home fires, letting Zac know when it is safe to reappear when the coast is clear.

Please don’t think for a moment that I could or would demean our feline family members, as cats also serve an important purpose in a household. They are skilled vermin killers, while dogs are hard-wired to be loyal protectors. In fact, the most popular name early on in dog domestication was “Fido” which was taken from the Latin word fidus, meaning “faithful.” 

It’s funny because my husband and I both had cats first and will defend to the end the attributes of our feline companions, but like it or not, dogs serve a purpose that our domestic cats cannot. Protection, love, and safety. Not only that they are fearless and remain true to us, but dogs will also stay until the bitter end if called to do so. We all remember the images of the dogs that risked their lives after 9/11. Dogs serve us in so many ways.

One of the most well-known and humorous depictions of the dog is the iconic “Poker game.” Painted by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge. It depicts four dogs playing poker. My best friend’s parents had the very same painting on black velvet hanging in their basement when we were kids. My friend and I would speculate about what the world would be like if our canine companions had thumbs and could play cards.

 

In a world where dogs would rule, there would be indoor fire hydrants, and red meat at every meal, and if you smelled OK there would be world peace. “I will walk with you another 30,000 years if you promise me peace my canine friend.”