That's just what we do

Having fur bearing creatures live with us in our houses is odd. I mean think about it for a minute. In the wild these animals would have to live in the woods and prairies roaming in search of food and shelter with nary a human to brush their fur, trim their claws or fluff their doggy bed at night. Animals require daily maintenance and gravitate to all things smelly. They occasionally exercise and engage in productive play with us but most of the time we wonder what they're chewing, scratching or clawing at the moment. Their modus operandi seems to be to do anything they want whenever they want (as long as they can get away with it).

These lazy freeloaders basically get all they need without doing any work or paying any rent. We willingly fork over money to cover room and board, puppy school, hair care equipment and chew toys. We block our schedules so we can take them out on regular walks to find stinky stuff to roll in and to locate just the right place to take a dump. Our pets get all the fresh water and pet chow they need (plus all the bonus table scraps they can scrounge), all the ear scratchings they can beg, and access to anything else we might offer that amuses or intrigues them. Most also get fully paid medical and dental coverage and some even get advanced training budgets. We provide them fully paid vacations to our pet loving neighbors or the K-9 hotel. And then to top it off we even give these critters Christmas presents!! All of this can add up to some serious dough. Boy, are we a bunch of suckers or what!?

So I'm wondering if as a race we humans have totally lost our sanity. Perhaps. And yet maybe the humanity we can gain from allowing these animals into our lives justifies the madness.

Today's rain storm reminds me of a similarly rainy spring day several years ago. Our pet hamster "Fluffy" had just passed on. Me and a couple of heartbroken youngsters decided to hold a small funeral ceremony before we buried him in his little tissue-lined shoebox coffin. There we were huddled together under umbrellas out on the edge of a field near our home. I remember pondering the occasion and wondering just exactly what do you say at a hamster's graveside service. The memory still brings a smile to my face. I'd like to think that I handled the occasion with just the right amount of religious ceremony. Reflecting back I think the reason for doing anything at all was to help my children come away with an appropriate amount of reverence for another of God's precious creations. Reverence is a hard thing to teach so you have to seize moments like that whenever you can when feelings are tender and little minds are open. And for selfish reasons I suppose, I also wanted my kids to come away with the feeling that their pet had been treated fairly by dear old Dad.

Maybe that ceremony on the edge of the rain soaked field helps explain why we allow these freeloading critters to live with us in the first place. That's just what we do.