Pets and People

Like most people I love my pets. Like an extra child who will never grow up, who I will likely have to suffer through their death, care for them when ill, maintain their health in the meantime etc. What we get in return is, of course, great pleasure, unconditional love. It is not the love of a child who eventually will outgrow you and leave, who will say in a fit of anger "I hate you." You will not get ignored as children will do. Pets, particularly dogs, are always happy to see you when you come home from a long day at work. They want love and attention and food and a walk, like children, but then don't ask for more. They don't care about the latest video game or movie, or what their friends think about their clothes. A dog doesn't care about a designer collar or leash, just cares about the food in the dish, does it have water, can it pee and poop outside, did it get walked? The relationship between animals and people is something fascinating to me. We talk about our pets as though they were our children. We find them comforting when we are sick or disabled. Therapy dogs, seeing eye dogs, companion dogs for those with food allergies or epilepsy, veterans who need assistance and so on.

Most of these dogs (but not all due to inbreeding) could survive in wild without us. But could we survive without them?We use them for hunting, guarding and police work, rodent control. shepherding, in addition to their other functions. We are truly co-dependent with them.

Maybe that explains our fascination with zoos and nature shows, "Animal Planet", "National Geographic", and movies about animals. Our fascination extending to imaging what are they thinking? what would they say, as if they were human?

My husband always wonders, do dogs really remember us? Do they have a perception of time? Our question was answered recently watching numerous videos on uTube as soldiers return from the Middle East to their dogs who clearly recognize them, and are so thrilled to see them that both the dogs and people are crying in their own way. Truly moving to watch as these animals clearly knew their owner had been gone longer than usual, definitely not just another day at the office.