Well, They're Not Just "Pets,"

Heartsick.

Nauseous.

Worried.

Guilty.

Angry.

Protective.

Grief...

I am a current co-habitator with a mammal other than my boyfriend. Let me tell you, when people sing about a "song" or a "someone" saving their life tonight, for me it's usually been a furry creature of the four-legged variety.

I wanted to post this entry because I have two very dear friends of mine who have non-human family members either in crisis or missing.

I have been in both places, and they are a terrible, helpless place to be.

I've had people say to me "it's only an animal" to which I could turn around and say "it's only a relative," Jesus. They are one in the same. The animal faces we provide for are no less a member of our family than any other, because they fit the criteria: we love them unconditionally, they love us back, we miss; we miss terribly when we are away from each other. They do too.

There are personal stories I could share, but I'm not writing this entry for me. I'm writing it for Codzilla whose Denver isn't out of the woods yet. I'm writing it for RAN, whose babies have been gone for too long now. Not knowing is the worst.

People have said to me that because I don't have human children, that's it's easy to project those feelings onto something else. I've never projected those feelings to a car, or a piece of furniture...

Go fuck yourselves, you people who talk smack like that.

To those people I say: Love is never "projected," love is honest and because it is, it carries risk; it carries joy and it carries heartbreak; it carries all these wonderful and awful emotions that are part of the "human" experience - but I'll tell you one thing: a wee pair of eyes looking into yours with love, acceptance and confidence in knowing you will never harm it - how is that sentient being any less deserving of the "benefit" of human love? It surpasses human love, it simply is...LOVE. Trust, is a very good way to describe or define love: without Trust there is nothing.

My heart is with my friends and their family members, whether two or four-legged. Why? because there are certain special, wonderful people who know that sometimes what we really need to know about ourselves and the world comes from the voice of the critters. That's why we wait, worry, suffer and give a big part of who we are to them.