Bill Miller: Conversation with Dog

Bill Miller is an Episcopal priest at St. Michael and All the Angels in Kona, HI. For about 10 years he was my priest at St. James Episcopal Church in Austin, TX and was my next door neighbor. I always delight in seeing him and hearing him speak. He is a very charismatic speaker and he writes well. Bill is a well read, observant individual with a real zest for life which no doubt is the driving force in causing people to be drawn to him. He has a deep love of animals which lead to the writing of his lovely book, "The Gospel According to Sam". Sam Houston was is beloved Airedale terrier.

Last Sunday, August 10, 2008, my husband, Gerald, along with friends, Ora and Gina drove a couple of hours to St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg, TX to attend a sermon and lecture by the visiting priest, Bill Miller. The title of the lecture about faith, Sam, and the book mentioned above was "Conversation with Dog". Toward the end Bill read the postscript to the book about the death of Sam Houston just two weeks before his book went to print. It was a two-hankey read ... but then Sam was a good friend of mine too.

The following is a quote from the final chapter entitled, A Postscript on Love: "The week we were scheduled to go to print with this book, Sam developed serious breathing problems. Fearing some sort of tumor or scar tissue from the long ago fire or that he had developed adult-onset asthma like his dad, we immediately took him in for a check-up. Sam's wonderful veterinarian, Dr. Valerie McDaniel, seemed visibly sad as she showed me his x-ray. 'Here's the problem,' she said, as she pointed to his heart. 'Sam's heart is more than twice the size of a normal heart.' We had always suspected as much."

And that was Sam. A big lovely dog that had lived and loved his master and mistress and brought joy to all who knew him. The first chapter of the book really explains how deeply humans cared for this four legged animal. Sam was saved by neighbors from a house fire while we were all at church on Mother's Day in 1995. The week after Sam came home from the clinic there was a big celebration on Baylor Street with banners, balloons, and ice cream to welcome home our Sam. Funny how one critter can bring together an entire neighborhood.

Bill now has a dog that is part Airedale and part "other" or as Bill phrased it he's a poi dog, meaning mutt in Hawaiian. This fellow's name is Willie Nelson and I suspect he helps fill the void left by Sam.