"The Sixth Day of Creation"
  A Catalan story by Luis H. Daal
  From Marie Noël: L'oeuvre du sixieme jour (El viatge de Nadal)

The dog had just been created, and he licked his Creator's hand.
And God gently caressed the dog's head.  "What would you like to have,
my dear friend dog?"

"Oh Lord, I would like to be in your home, in Heaven, and snuggle upon
a bunch of straw, close to the door."

"I'm afraid that won't be possible!" said the Lord. "I don't need a dog.
There are no thieves yet, you know!"

"Now, when do you plan to create thieves, my Lord?"

"Never!  Look here, I'm tired now.  I have been creating for five days
already and it is time for me to take some rest.  I have just created
you, my dear dog, and you are the best creature I made so far, the crown
to my Creation.  I'd rather stop now.  It is not a good thing for an
artist to go farther than his inspiration.  If I would go on creating
I could make mistakes, you know.  Come on, dear dog, settle upon Earth
and be very happy."

The dog breathed a very deep sigh, which seemed to emerge right from
his heart.  "Please tell me, Lord, whatever would I do on Earth"?

"Well, er..., I would say: eat, drink, grow, and multiply," said
the Lord.

The dog took another deep sigh, sadder still than the first one.

"What's the matter?  What more do you want?"

"I need YOU, Lord!  You are my Master!  Could you please go to
Earth with me and live there with me"?

"No, my dear friend," said the Lord.  "I assure you that I cannot
come with you to Earth to keep you company.  I have so many things
to see to -- Heaven, the Angels, the Comets...  They keep me busy all
the time, you know."

The dog, discouraged, dropped his head and walked away slowly.
Suddenly he retraced his steps.

"Oh, Lord!  If I only could have anybody down there, a kind of Boss,
someone a bit like You, just a tiny bit..."

"No," said the Lord, "There is no one like that down there!"

Then the dog felt quite lost, and he softly beseeched: "If you really
want it, my Lord!  You could still try..."

"That cannot be!" said the Lord.  "I have created everything that can
be created.  My work is finished!  I could not make anything better
than you.  If I would create still another creature today, I feel that
it would be imperfect."

"Ah! My dear Lord!" said the dog, "I don't mind if the creature will
be imperfect!  If I only can follow it wherever it goes, and sleep at
its door when that is shut before me, I will be happy."

The Lord was amazed having made such a virtuous creature, so he said
to the dog: "Now go, my friend, your wish will be fulfilled."

And, continuing His creation, God created Man (and, implicitly, the
thieves)...

Of course, as God predicted, Man is imperfect.  But the dog does not
mind -- he just likes it!

 [ Retold in the book, "Antilliaans verhaal [Antilles stories]",
 [ by Luis H. Daal & Ted Schouten; Zutphen, De Walburg Pers, 1988.
 [ This English version, translated from Dutch by Hans van Oost
 [ and first published in MMDigest of 19 December 2000, is
 [ copyright (C) 2000 by Hans van Oost and Mechanical Music Digest.
 [ The title of the Catalan tales, "El viatge de Nadal", means
 [ "The Christmas Journey" or "The Nativity Journey".  The version
 [ in French, related by French novelist Marie Noël (1883-1967), is at
 [ http://lyc89-larousse.ac-dijon.fr/article.php3?id_article=270
 [ -- Robbie