Designed as a Companion

Genesis 9:2a
“And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air….”

When God told Noah that man could now eat meat after the Flood, He kindly filled the animals with a natural fear of man. However, He evidently left a few animals without that fear in order for them to be helpmates and companions for man.

The dog has been man’s best friend probably since before the Genesis Flood. Researchers recently tested whether Border Collies were intelligent enough to fetch an unseen item in another room simply by being shown a picture or model of it. Chimps and dolphins had also been tested for this ability and were unable to do it. Collies, both trained and untrained to “fetch”, were tested in their own homes. Eight toys they were to fetch were in a second room. Then the dogs were shown either an exact copy of what they were to fetch, a model of it, or a photograph and were told, “bring it here.”

All retrieved their toy easily after being shown a model of it. Trained dogs did well when shown an exact copy, but the untrained dogs needed a little practice with this task. Some dogs were even able to fetch a toy when shown a full-sized photograph.

Not only does the domestic dog have no natural fear of man, but many of them can relate to us in very helpful ways.

Prayer:
Father, thank You for those animals which can be companions and even help us. Amen.

Notes:
Science News Online, 3/21/09, http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/419732, Bruce Bower, “Dogs Show a Fetching Communication Savvy.” Photo: Border collie. Courtesy of Sannse. (CC BY-SA 3.0)