Cats and Dogs

DOGS

Michael Vick has been indicted by a grand jury over allegations that he ran a dog fighting enterprise out of one of his homes in Virginia. You surely know by now of my affection for animals, so I won’t reiterate any views I may have already expressed as to the heinousness of this crime and the blight on society that Vick and his kind represent.
What I find interesting is that the dog fighting “hobby” is not for those earning minimum wage. Huge sums of money are required to house the dogs, buy the equipment and, perhaps most of all, make the large wagers that degenerates place on these events. These people are affluent, and some of them famous, proving the notion that society’s scum is not bound by social class or income.
While most of us find the dog fighting practice disgusting, as it is with all things, that viewpoint is not universally agreed upon. You have a hard time getting people in mixed company to admit that they think it’s a fine recreational endeavor, just as you would trying to get people to admit to drinking and driving or using illegal drugs. Sadly, some people have a utilitarian view of animals, and back it up with some convoluted reference to the Bible telling them that “man has dominance over the animals."

Domesticated animals (as cats and dogs are supposed to be) are loyal friends who bring great joy and happiness to lives of humans. When they are used as a form of perverse entertainment, one must wonder what sort of demented person gets enjoyment out of watching any living creature destroy another - or destroying one themselves.

CATS

It has been said that the saddest thing an adult has to do is to bury one of its children.
How many people would have children if they knew that their children would die before their parents? Raise a kid for 16 years only to have his health fail and have to bury him next to his either slightly older or younger siblings who suffered similar fates.
Knowing that, we (the animal lovers) bring a pet into our home and allow the animal to bond with us and become a full-fledged furry member of our family. We plan vacations around them, time-out our work day and make time at our leisure for them. All of this is done with the understanding that unless the animal is a tortoise or a parrot, we will outlive the animal and at some point we will be faced with the sorrowful chore of deciding its fate, and to some extent, ours.

We never know, of course, when that moment will come. There are a fair number of accidents that take the lives of our furry friends or the unexpected illness that will come from nowhere and leave the decision out of our control. If, however, the animal remains in its captive indoor nest, chances are that they will live a long pet life, which will undoubtedly end from some malady, and just as undoubtedly leave their human to make the painful decision as to the time when the quality of the pet’s life intrudes on the quality of the human’s.

It is at that point that the human caregiver must seek to do what is in the best interests of his animal companion. The nature of the animal is to be the loyal friend, since we choose to care for them, feed them and comfort them, as they comfort us. Once that loyalty is taken advantage of - either by induced fighting or prolonged agony - we are selfishly taking advantage of their friendship and preying on the very thing that they provide to us as an excuse for our enjoyment.

I only wish that the animals had a say in the matter.