A divine template?

I am the proud owner of a perfect pug named Moose. Or I should say that Moose is the proud owner of me, because he's definitely the one in charge around here.

I got Moose six years ago after my gynecologist announced that I not only would never get pregnant (despite years of expensive and fruitless fertility treatments), but that I also needed an immediate hysterectomy. Her nurse then suggested that my more-than-apparent misery would best be cured by getting a dog. I have three cats, I replied. She averred, "You need to get a dog."

So I did. Boy, did he cure me of any need for an infant. It was tough enough chasing around after an errant pug. What would I have done at 42 with a baby? Coped, I guess. But I still took it as evidence that sometimes God smiles on you and doesn't give you what you pray for.

Anyway, I love this dog more than life. He is my constant companion. During the day, he snores quietly beside me. He doesn't sleep on the floor like any other canine. NO... he sleeps up on an upholstered pedestal of a desk chair. What do you think he is, a dog?

Moose is a dog, but is certainly not a Moose, although that is his name. Which is sort of why I bring all this up. Today there is an interesting story out about an entirely new species that is somewhere along the evolutionary scale between fish and humans. It's got legs, my friends, and eyes that face forward like a person. It doesn't swim; it crawls.

And I think it looks remarkably like my dog - if you squint or something. You may not see it, but I think if you took away the zebra stripes and gave him some hair and removed his gills, you'd have Moose. Sort of anyway.

And then I started thinking about baby seals and how they look like Moose. What? Did God use a template here? I'm a designer; I know all about templates. It seems to me that God just adapted his pug design for other species. Cut and paste, make the change, save as. Story of my life.

As further evidence of my divine template theory, I think my dearly departed cat, Pachelbel, looked like an owl. See what I mean?