I like my critters

So, I made through my third speech this morning. I felt awful about it because I did not have as much time to prepare so I was nervous, but people in class said it was really good. How strange. I did the usual “tug at your heartstrings” speech about the abuse of traveling circus animals and why those circuses should be banned.

I find it strange that we can have more compassion for animals than other humans, not that there is anything wrong with that. If you want to turn me into a snarling maniac who will whoop your ass up one side and down the other, just purposely hurt my dog or cat.

I like people, but we can be real assholes towards animals, and I don’t always understand why. My cat likes to mutilate birds on the bedroom carpet and leave us a gift of guts and feathers to clean up. Sometimes this pisses me off, but I can’t hurt her as it is in her nature to hunt. I can tell her no and hope she gets the hint we love her without the presents.

My dog likes to do what my husband calls “crop dusting”, meaning he will come in from outside, walk in front of us while silently farting, and then go back outside leaving us with his butt fragrance. I don’t know if he does this on purpose, I swear that sometimes I see him smile when he slips back out the dog door. It could be revenge for baby talking to him, or putting the wig on him at Halloween and proceeding to point and laugh hysterically. It is just something he does and we accept it as part of the dog he is, maybe adding a little probiotics to his dinner to settle the tummy.

So I beg people to be nice to animals, what have they really ever done to you? And if they did do something to you, are you sure you didn’t deserve it? We should never underestimate the intelligence or compassion of an animal. I have seen animals that act more of what we consider human than some humans themselves.