Dogs

A grew up with a lab that my family named Zeus. There were years where I walked and groomed him almost every day. And for a while I let him up on my bed and he would sleep with me. Sometimes we would go to a coffee shop and I would tie him to one of the outside tables. He would watch the glass door I went into as I ordered coffee for myself and ice water and a dog treat for him.

At the time, I didn’t understand the cognitive dossonance I was experiencing. I completely spoiled my dog and we would spend a lot of time together. I didn’t realize that I was blindly eating aminals just as everyone else was without realize just how much life was in them.

All animals have there own feelings and personalties, they just experience life differently than we do. After I discovered veganism I decided I didn’t want to hurt them unless absultly nesscary. My dog has helped me with many rough points in my life and for that I can’t ever imagine wanting to hurt him. Animals can be lovable as long as we allow ourselves to do that.

I hate the phrase, “they’re just animals,” because we are, “just animals,” too. I think it was luck that brought us to the top, to have a planet that we could easily conquer and to become a species after the dinosaurs reign. By watching other animals I think it gives a better understanding of the world and I don’t think we should have the right to suppress them just because we rule it.

When my dog was still alive, I tried to make his life as interesting and as free as possible. He would follow me anywhere and its for that reason that I felt like i was doing the right thing. We would try to take him hiking as a family and whenever it was nice out I would try to take him to a dog park. I still don’t like when people just keep there dogs coped up in there house. Yes, some dogs do like to stay in the house, I new dog likes to stay in our house because he was never allowed in one when he was a puppy. However, I think doing that for long periods of time makes them do stir crazy and that probably why a lot of dogs go crazy on leashes. My old dog, Zeus, was that way for a little bit, but once we started walking more regularly and going different places he calmed down.

The relationship I had with my dog was evqualient or maybe even stronger then most of my human relationships. I fucking loved that dog and watching him pass at the age of 12 was probably one of the worst days of my life. Our new dog is more of a family dog and he doesn’t really cling to anybody. Its been hard to establish a good relationship with him because I work around 40 hours each week and I also have other responbilties outside of that. When I move out and have more time, I might get another dog -but only if I know I can spend plenty of time with him/her.

I feel like in a way we’ve shunned so many other animals. I think other animals, like chicken, deer, foxes and so on would become more responsive to us over time if we gave them the chance. Its taken years to get dogs to where they are now with us. They know their names, most them understand when we’re asking them for something, and sometimes they even protect from being harmed. I don’t think other animals will help us in the same way that dogs do, but I do think each of them have something to bring to the table.

After many factors coming into my life, one of them being the death of my first dog. I look at animals as a sentient beings I can communicate with rather them something I just eat. Unless it’s the only choice someone has, I don’t think most people really have a good reason to be harming them.