• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

I can’t leave my pets behind!

Mark Dohle

Well-Known Member


I can’t leave my pets behind!

A couple of days before Florence came to shore, I called an old family friend, (an adopted aunt), who was very close to my mother. She is now 85 years old, and from what she tells me, is in great health. She lives in Myrtle Beach and I was worried about her. I asked her if she was going to evacuate as was recommended by the authorities. She lives close to the water, so my concern was pretty high. She said, “no, I have too many pets and can’t leave them, Debbie is staying with me”. Debbie being her daughter.

This caused me some anxiety and I tried to convince her to leave. However, she was sure that they would get through alright. They live in a two story home, so she felt that would be able to survive any flooding. My first impulse was to down play the safety of her pets, that she and her daughter were more important. Yet, I held my tongue. This is a woman who is always bringing in strays, and for years she took care of a family of raccoons. When they were young, they lost their parents, and she fed the three baby raccoons every night. Years later, the old raccoons, along with their children, and grandchildren, would come every night to feast on macaroni and cheese. Also, animals love her back, even those she does not take care of. So I was not going there.

I can’t say I have ever bounded deeply with any pet that I had in the past. Perhaps it is because being in a large family, the dogs belonged to everyone. We had a German-Shepherd, named Bullet (while living in East St. Louis in the 50’s), who I loved very much, but again, he did not pick anyone out to love more than the others. He would protect us no matter who we were, a good dog for a large family. Blitz was a great pet, a boxer, intelligent and loyal, again, not overly attached. When blitz died in 1976 I believe, my mother never got over it, and never had another dog.

So I sort of understood my adopted aunt’s choice to stay behind. She loves people as well and has many friends. She was a very good friend to my mother.

Not sure one can have a close relationship with a reptile. I am sure that those who love them, will say yes to that questions, and say that there is more to them than meets the eye. I do think, that they should be listened to. For lately I find myself becoming attached to the box turtle in our garden. An odd development for me.

I have written about our box turtle in our inner garden here at the Monastery. A new development has begun to occur with the turtle. A couple of monks have started feeding it when it shows up every few days. Now, it goes to one place and waits until we get out of Mass and walk through the inner garden, waiting for its treat. One day I got a piece of banana and took it out to him. He was sitting there and when he saw me coming and perhaps got a look at the banana, he actually started running (well a turtle run) towards me. I find myself becoming attached to this little critter, after what I perceived as some sort of personal contact. I find it strange. I guess it is the response, it jolted me into thinking that there may be more to these creatures than I thought, that again, true reptile lovers try to tell us.

I often wonder what goes on in the heads of my evolutionary brothers and sister. Whatever it is, it is a life, a real existence filled with danger, pain, joy and with the turtle, bananas, and apples, and peaches! Our cloister garden is big enough that he can find a good place to hibernate for the winter. As well as getting enough to eat. We don’t feed him that much. He has been with us for a few years now. Many tend to say that reptiles, animals, and insects are not as intelligent as we are. Well, I guess there is some truth in that statement... there is another way to look at it. The Box Turtle, for instance, is perfect, has what it takes to survive and as long as it is not in danger, or hungry, it is probably happier that I will ever be......not that I would trade places with it of course.....but there you have it.—Br.MD
 
Last edited:

Regiomontanus

Ματαιοδοξία ματαιοδοξιών! Όλα είναι ματαιοδοξία.


I can’t leave my pets behind!

A couple of days before Florence came to shore, I called an old family friend, (an adopted aunt), who was very close to my mother. She is now 85 years old, and from what she tells me, is in great health. She lives in Myrtle Beach and I was worried about her. I asked her if she was going to evacuate as was recommended by the authorities. She lives close to the water, so my concern was pretty high. She said, “no, I have too many pets and can’t leave them, Debbie is staying with me”. Debbie being her daughter.

This caused me some anxiety and I tried to convince her to leave. However, she was sure that they would get through alright. They live in a two story home, so she felt that would be able to survive any flooding. My first impulse was to down play the safety of her pets, that she and her daughter were more important. Yet, I held my tongue. This is a woman who is always bringing in strays, and for years she took care of a family of raccoons. When they were young, they lost their parents, and she fed the three baby raccoons every night. Years later, the old raccoons, along with their children, and grandchildren, would come every night to feast on macaroni and cheese. Also, animals love her back, even those she does not take care of. So I was not going there.

I can’t say I have ever bounded deeply with any pet that I had in the past. Perhaps it is because being in a large family, the dogs belonged to everyone. We had a German-Shepherd, named Bullet (while living in East St. Louis in the 50’s), who I loved very much, but again, he did not pick anyone out to love more than the others. He would protect us no matter who we were, a good dog for a large family. Blitz was a great pet, a boxer, intelligent and loyal, again, not overly attached. When blitz died in 1976 I believe, my mother never got over it, and never had another dog.

So I sort of understood my adopted aunt’s choice to stay behind. She loves people as well and has many friends. She was a very good friend to my mother.

Not sure one can have a close relationship with a reptile. I am sure that those who love them, will say yes to that questions, and say that there is more to them than meets the eye. I do think, that they should be listened to. For lately I find myself becoming attached to the box turtle in our garden. An odd development for me.

I have written about our box turtle in our inner garden here at the Monastery. A new development has begun to occur with the turtle. A couple of monks have started feeding it when it shows up every few days. Now, it goes to one place and waits until we get out of Mass and walk through the inner garden, waiting for its treat. One day I got a piece of banana and took it out to him. He was sitting there and when he saw me coming and perhaps got a look at the banana, he actually started running (well a turtle run) towards me. I find myself becoming attached to this little critter, after what I perceived as some sort of personal contact. I find it strange. I guess it is the response, it jolted me into thinking that there may be more to these creatures than I thought, that again, true reptile lovers try to tell us.

I often wonder what goes on in the heads of my evolutionary brothers and sister. Whatever it is, it is a life, a real existence filled with danger, pain, joy and with the turtle, bananas, and apples, and peaches! Our cloister garden is big enough that he can find a good place to hibernate for the winter. As well as getting enough to eat. We don’t feed him that much. He has been with us for a few years now. Many tend to say that reptiles, animals, and insects or not as intelligent as we are. Well, I guess there is some truth in that statement... there is another way to look at it. The Box Turtle, for instance, is perfect, has what it takes to survive and as long as it is not in danger, or hungry, it is probably happier that I will ever be......not that I would trade places with it of course.....but there you have it.—Br.MD

Hello. The often unreported plight of all of the non-human members of God's Creation always troubles me deeply. I know many animals must have suffered and died in this hurricane. We can help:


Disaster FAQ : The Humane Society of the United States
 

Katja

Member
Let's put it this way: regardless of whether you are emotionally attached to an animal, it is still a living, breathing creature that can feel pain and fear. I assume you would not want to see a person suffer, regardless of whether you are fond of them or even know them. Animals are also capable of suffering, so why does it seem so foreign that a person wouldn't want to see another living being in pain, regardless of whether one has a loving feeling toward that animal? Isn't that what compassion and empathy are?

In your aunt's case, she is also aware that she has taken on these animals and given them a home, and therefore has some responsibility toward their well-being...
 

Mark Dohle

Well-Known Member
Let's put it this way: regardless of whether you are emotionally attached to an animal, it is still a living, breathing creature that can feel pain and fear. I assume you would not want to see a person suffer, regardless of whether you are fond of them or even know them. Animals are also capable of suffering, so why does it seem so foreign that a person wouldn't want to see another living being in pain, regardless of whether one has a loving feeling toward that animal? Isn't that what compassion and empathy are?

In your aunt's case, she is also aware that she has taken on these animals and given them a home, and therefore has some responsibility toward their well-being...
Yes of course. She also takes care of animals who are hurt, wild ones. There is more to our amimals brothers and sisters than we know. St. Francis certainly knew that.

Thanks for the reminder :cool:

Peace
Mark
 
Top