Pet lessons

Conclusion

I appreciate your indulgences as I have traveled back in time to reflect on the pets I have owned. It was pleasant to meditate about what each pet has taught me.

I realize that the way we think about and treat animals can influence who we are and what we become in life. Those who were taught to treat animals kindly tend to treat people kindly. Studies show that those who are violent, sometimes brutal to people, were often cruel to animals first. That is one important reason to intervene in animal cruelty and animal (dog) fighting cases.

I will probably still write about animals, from time to time. Seeing an animal in the wild is a special treat; a deer in the nearby cotton field, a turtle trying to cross the highway, or the red fox scampering along the banks of the Mississippi River. As it gets cooler, some animals will be harder to spot. There are some wild animals I won’t miss, like the raccoon that thinks he owns our neighborhood. Others will be happily welcomed back next spring, like the hummingbirds that recently abandoned my feeder.