An image that some says looks like Jesus Christ that recently appeared on a doggie door at a Southern California household has apparently saved two dogs from being turned over to an animal shelter.
A Yucaipa, Calif., couple decided to keep their big, unruly dogs after an image they say resembles Jesus Christ appeared on the plastic flap of their pet door – days before they were to get rid of the canines.
“I’m probably not going to become a born-again evangelist, but I cannot deny that I think there was a spirit of redemption at work,” dog owner Roger Bowman, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper.
The image combines dirt, claw marks and a manufacturer’s logo to form what Bowman says looks like Jesus in the Shroud of Turin.
The image appeared on the door in early January, Bowman said, as his fiancée's two dogs – Max, a Labrador Retriever-German Shepherd Dog mix and Hercules, a Labrador Retriever – were bustling in and out through the pet door more frequently than usual.
Prior to this, after weeks of discussion, the couple had agreed to get rid of the dogs due to their size and discipline problems. Hercules, 2, was headed for a shelter, but Max, who once bit a stranger, would likely be put down because no shelter would take a dog that could pose a threat.
Vasquez and Bowman say they had planned to move the dogs out in a day or two. But then the image appeared on the doggie door.
Bowman, a self-described agnostic, told the Press-Enterprise he’s thinking of having the pet flap lighted and framed to hang on the wall.
And the dogs aren’t going anywhere, Bowman said.