Animal companions

I'm thinking about dogs today. I’ve never had a dog and don’t know much about them although I like to read about them. Yesterday as we were returning from a walk we met friends, also out walking,  who had  their new dog, a Wheaten terrier, with them. He knows his name and is an enthusiastic greeter of people. He is barely more than a puppy and he is quickly learning the ways of living with his humans.

This morning I received an email that saddened me about another friend's dog whose life ended yesterday. He was devoted to his family and came to them as an older fellow. In the email his human fondly remembered how he used to catch mice and bring them as an offering and how he basked in the sun. Her sorrow took me on a journey of all of the animals who have, in one way or another, shared my life for a brief time.

There are the many cats from my first cat who came from my uncle’s farm when I was five or six. My parents carried a dead mouse back home in a paper bag and when we were home they gave me to bag and the mouse to offer to the kitten to make her feel at home. She took the mouse gently, crawled under my parents' bed and ate it. Not a whisker remained. I never thought to wonder at the time who had dispatched the mouse. That cat lived to be 15 and was known to chase dogs three times her size out of the yard and down the street. There were the turtles who grew as big dinner plates. The cat used to sit on top of the aquarium which my dad had fitted with a mesh top and watch the turtles when they were the size of quarters.

There was the kitten I rescued from a tree on a night well below freezing who, ever after, disliked me and only would only consent to sit with me while Mum was travelling and I was the only source of food and comfort. Even then, it took over a week for her to grudgingly jump up in Mum’s chair beside me and share the warmth. She was hit by a car years later and survived into relative old age navigating quite nicely on three legs unencumbered by the withered right-front leg.

There was the white part-Persian with a grease-streak down his back who came to live on my porch in Banff and the big black cat who stood aside at my parent's back door and let a small black and white kitten come into the house and eat out of his dish. There were other cats who weren’t with us all that long. There was only one we took to an animal shelter. Once we took in 4 kittens for a friend until she could find homes for them.

There are the cats now who live with friends and who greet me when I visit. One likes to play fetch and sometimes brings me a toy to toss down the hall for her. Occasionally she will ask for a belly rub. There is her buddy, a black and white tuxedo boy who rubs against my legs and purrs. There was the big orange tabby who lived with other friends who used to jump up on my lap, sprawl out on his back and who sometimes became so enthralled with the petting I gave him that he forgot himself and fell off.

Then there are the birds: the cockatiel: Richard’s first real pet, the blue and white budgie, the two green and yellow budgies, and the quaker who bonded with me. Now there is Odie. While most cat and dog owners will outlive their pets, there’s a good chance that Odie will outlive both of us. Whether it’s because they chew shoes, poop in the kitchen, or bite the hand that feeds them, pets add complexity to everyday life. In spite of that, many of us will choose again and again to share our lives with critters. So today, I’m grateful for all furry, feathery, hairy, finny, and scaly friends who make our lives just a little bit brighter. When they die they are constants in our memories and in a world where humans have been recently forced apart from each other, the animals keep us company, make us laugh, and elicit kindness.