"Dog" is "God" Spelled Backwards

You people. As I discussed in my last list, my beloved pug Winston is experiencing some health issues that could prove to be life-threatening if he doesn't receive a costly operation. Because I am an immature a-hole, I confined my description of his problems to some jokes about an ailment of his wiener, but he is also threatened a large growth on his spleen which needs to be removed and trouble with his spine which is causing him to drag his hind legs when he walks. But Winston is a warrior and you'd almost never know that he had such troubles by looking at him.

Until I got Winston six years ago, I was never much of a dog person. Truth be told, I never considered myself much of a person at all. Oh, I had some nice qualities; I could always be counted on for a quick-witted dirty joke and I was never one to say no if somebody needed help moving. But my world view was always confined to about a three-foot radius around my own derrière (out of which I was convinced that the sun shone). And that world was a lonely place where I frequently found myself sinking into the depths of despair.

That gradually changed when a stout little pug with the heart of an angel entered my life. I always considered it something of a red flag when I met someone who was too into their pets, and I would never deign to suggest that the life of a dog or cat or guinea pig had anything like the value of a human being's. But Winston's loving heart has taught me that we - and by "we," I do mean dogs and cats and guinea pigs as well as human beings - really are connected by some kind of universal divinity. I never believed in God before I met Winston and I still have trouble with what George Carlin described as "an invisible man who lives in the sky." But Winston showed me that all living creatures belong to a family and that we have an obligation to each other.

That became blissfully apparent to me when a friend of mine suggested that I start a GoFundMe campaign to try and pay for the operation my little guy needs and so many of you have come through with kindness and generosity to try and make it possible. As of this writing, we are more than a third of our way to our goal. I am humbled and grateful and never would have thought such a thing was conceivable six years ago. But I hadn't met Winston six years ago, and I didn't realize a lot of things that I do now.

If you would like to contribute to our campaign, please click here. Whether we make our goal or not, my heart is full at the show of kindness I've seen over the last 24 hours. But I should have known that a world that has Winston in it was always capable of such things.

And as a way of saying thanks, here's a photo tribute to my little guy.