Bettinasattva

Since Bettina hasn't allowed me to photograph her rituals, we have had to
stage another dramatic recreation...

There is very little about Bettina that could be considered Zen or enlightened.  She’s generally wound tighter than a drum.  There is no point in walking when you can run.  There is no point in running when you can bounce or hop about.   And why suffer silence when you can cry, whine and bark?  Bettina does not just exist.  She rages.

Yet in the midst of the maelstrom that is Bettina, there is a tiny kernel of Zen-like practice.  A reverence for something which borders on religious awe.  You see, Bettina worships the magic treat jar.  Don’t misunderstand me.  It is nothing like a typical canine loves a treat.  For Bettina it is a faith, a creed, a dogma (if you will forgive my sinking to the obvious pun). 

Our treats live on a small banquette in the entryway to the kitchen.  There are a number of different jars but the one that Bettina reveres is made out of glass with a metal lid.  For Bettina, the treat jar is a great mystery of life.  It has, for the full extent of her life with us, remained constantly full.  A miracle akin to the 8 days of light with 1 day’s worth of oil.  Like the fishes and the loaves. 

Just in case we couldn't get the right picture of Bettina, Blue was
willing to step in as our stunt double.

Bettina cherishes this mystery.  Like praying towards Mecca, she stops at the banquette ‘alter’, reaches her nose up in awe and gently touches the jar lid which jingles a little with a soft tink.  She does this at a minimum of 5 times a day.  She doesn’t even need a call to prayer or any sort of prayer paraphernalia.  Her joy in this devotion is pure and simple.  Nose to jar lid, tink, assurance that all is right with the world.

Like any good pilgrim, she has never tried to pull back the curtain to discover the truth behind the mystery.  She has never tried to see Oz.  She could, if she put her mind to it only slightly, knock the lid off.  Or indeed it would be easy to knock the jar itself off its perch.  She could place her front feet on the banquette and be eye to eye with a veritable treat bonanza.  And lord knows she has made deep investigation into many things in our house that I would have preferred she did not.  Some things took a good deal of creativity and ingenuity to accomplish.

 

But she takes the magic treat jar at face value.  For this one thing she remains on the Zen path and remains at a respectful, worshipful distance.  Either that or she truly hasn’t figured out yet how easy it would be for her to gorge herself silly.