The concept of history seems to be exclusively human. Animals don’t care about history. They live in the moment only. (At least as far as we know; we must always keep in mind that we’ve been wrong about animals before.)
But our relationship with the other creatures who share our planet is part of our history. It’s a part worth exploring. The way we see animals has changed radically in the last twenty years. Animals are now used in a wide variety of healing work with humans. Perhaps you were part of this societal change?
I remember a story a woman told me about her mother and a Pekinese. About twenty years ago “Maryanne” helped her mother move into a nursing home. “When Mom first moved there,” said Maryanne, “she was very depressed. She wouldn’t even get dressed, but just sat on her bed staring out the window, all day long. But then the nursing home started an animal visitor program. All her life Mom had loved Pekinese dogs – she must have owned and trained at least twenty throughout her life. One morning she was sitting on her bed staring out the window when her door opened and in trots this little honey-colored Pekinese with a blue bow in her hair. Mom just opened her arms and that little dog jumped right in them, as if she had known Mom all her life. When she left, Mom was smiling, and the next day she got dressed.”
How have animals changed your life? How have you changed theirs? Share their history.
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We have had a pets all 50 years of marriage – always a cat and many years with both cat and dog. Our last cat died of complications of diabetis not long before we moved from Maine to our new home in a lovely PA senior community. Residents could bring a pet in with them but could not being in a new one. Here we were in a new location without a pet and we really missed one. Over in the dementia unit lived Smokey. He had been there since the unit opened 10 years ago and was loved by all. One day a notice was posted that Smokey needed a new home as a new staff member was allergic. They were hoping an independent resident would adopt him so he would not have to be sent to a shelter. It took as no more than minutes to volunteer and we were happy ‘parents’ once again of a wonderul cat. We are doing our best to give him the loving home he deserves after all his years of service. He in turn has showered us with the love we were so missing. Of course we think he is the most intelligent cat ever and he has quickly trained us properly.
thanks for sharing Smokey’s story, Elizabeth. I’m afraid my cat, Morgan, is NOT the most intelligent cat ever – in fact I think she’s rather on the dumb side. But I love her anyway. Except when she kills mice and brings their heads in the house (she never brings in the rest of them, or if she does, she hides them well.)