I have loved dogs since I was a young child. You might even say they were my first love. I didn't get my first dog until I was 11 years old. She was a 2 year old miniature french poodle. I spent hours playing with her and walking in the park. She died long after I left home for college. I never forgot her and still think of her often. As a matter of fact I think of all the dogs that have passed through my house, each one special in their own way. I remember their little personality quirks, their fears, but most of all I remember the look of gratitude in their eyes when they looked at me. They knew that I had saved them from a much worse fate. That look in the eyes is the reason I do what I do, and have done so for over 20 years.
I don't need anyone to know my name, I don't care if anyone knows what I do, I just want to save the lives of those who can not speak for themselves. I am no Cesar Milan, I have a long way to go before I can make that claim, but I am good at what I do. More importantly, what I do is good for me. These dogs that I bring into my home are not the only ones who benefit. I too am rewarded for my work, not in monetary compensation, but in friendship, and love.
Don't ever let anyone tell you that dogs are incapable of emotion. I see it in them every day. There is Nakita, my big husky/lab cross who clumsy as she is will rein herself in to play with fellow pack member Pebbles a seven pound toy poodle. She will protect her little buddy Hercules from anyone and anything, and will nurse injured pack members when they are recovering, as she did with Harley and the recent paw injury. If I cry she lays beside me pawing and whining, but according to most "experts" she is incapable of emotion.
Nakita (and any other dog or cat) is capable of emotion, she is capable of loving both her fellow pack members and her human family, and she does! Those same aforementioned "experts" would scoff and say it is just instinct that makes her protective, that dogs don't have feelings or emotions. How then do you explain the dog that saves it's family from a fire? Would it not follow that if dogs are incapable of emotion, and your house is on fire, your dog would run? Why then do we hear so many stories of dogs saving their human companions from fire and other dangerous situations? In order to have the desire to save someone you must have the capability to care about what happens to them. If this is the case, then does it not follow that your dog has formed an emotional bond? Thereby proving that dogs and other animals, are more than capable of emotional attachment.
In a being incapable of emotion there would be no desire to save anyone but yourself. The simple fact that dogs and other animals have been credited with saving lives proves that they are capable of emotional thought. If this were not so then any animal in times of crisis would save only itself, being incapable of giving thought to the plight of anyone else. We know this is not true.
If animals can show compassion towards humans, why does it seem that many humans (supposedly the more intelligent species) are incapable of compassion toward animals? I think we perhaps have a lot to learn from the animal kingdom. What are your thoughts?
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