Animal death

I love dogs, when I was a child and a kid there's always been a dog around in my parents' place. (However, it's true I migh not like them so much, not enough since I've never had one myself at home, and even worse, my flatmate now has a small white hairy evil one and I'm getting tired of its barking, I think it's a dirty animal for a flat, etc.)

I'll put it in a different way: before leaving my parents' I've had quite a few dogs, and grew fond of them, felt affection (I'd say love if it wasn't such a big and important word). What I like the most it's playing with them. They're kind of simple of course, but so enthusiastic, devoted to whichever the game. They enjoy it even if it's square, they run after the carrot if needed and they like it.

And of course they die eventually, and it's tough, a couple of them went to my feet for the last breath and it hurt. However, there's another thing I've always liked about dogs, it's that they're all pretty similar; they're somehow different, smarter or sillier, fast and clumsy, fat and sharp, but essentially they're all the same, all so keen for games, for example. I quite easily end up liking my new dog as much as the dead one, even if I like it in a different way.


Some pet/dog lovers get a bit angry when I try to explain it. They tell me that I'm not being honest, that I am lying when I say I love dogs, and there's nothing I can say to change their minds.


But there's this very good friend who likes dogs as well, mostly the playing with them, as me, and he told me something I found very beautiful. He said he did not know if I was right or wrong, if there is a rightness or a wrongness applicable to what I was saying. Anyhow, he carried on, maybe it was just right, maybe it was just the right way to feel about death, and not only for animals, also for human beings. Not just about death, but the way to feel about people.

Quickly he asked me to forget about it, it was all nonsense, he said, it was around two months ago. From time to time I do remember, I spend some time thinking about rightness and wrongness, and I don't seem to quite get anywhere.