[Dailydrool] Essay on pet animals

[Riche Churchill]

  Animals: People are just wired differently. Some love the great 
outdoors -- hunting, camping, hiking, etc., some people find it boring 
or even horrendous. Some love to read, others hate it and see no point. 
Many people have no regard for animals -- some would not be unkind, but 
have no particular feelings for them, others are downright thoughtless 
and cruel.

Caring about animals probably starts in childhood. For some, not for 
others -- who knows why?

I "love" my dogs -- some more than others -- just like parents who love 
one child more than another (though they never admit it). I can't 
imagine having an "outside-only" dog -- why bother? I like being greeted 
joyously every time I come in the door -- EVERY time, whether I've been 
gone 5 minutes or 5 hours or 5 days. I like the special ones who follow 
me around the house and lie beside my chair wherever I happen to be. I 
cry buckets when they die, and remember and miss special ones who've 
been gone for 10, 20 or 30 years or more. Maybe I love them partly 
because I know they love me. And depend on me. Fortunately, I feel they 
give me comfort and calmness and company, which balances what I give 
them in the form of food and housing and attention. I could be happy 
with just one dog, although two are more fun for me and company for each 
other when I'm not around. Twelve is too many, but is what happens 
sometimes when we can't say no to one in dire need. And then another 
one. What difference will one more make, we ask, until finally the 
answer is a lot -- so no more. So far.

P.S. Well, make that 14 instead of 12 with the addition of two 
fosters... which we won't keep, I hope, but they are SO sweet and needy. 
One was a starved 8-week-old, the other dragging a broken leg. But we 
said "No more!" and we mean it, too. I think.

Riche Churchill, BUGLER
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