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June 14, 2007
 When we think of the animals in our lives, we usually first think of the obvious: choosing the right family pet, giving it a good life, and how we may give up a few everyday freedoms. When we bond with our family pets, we discover something deeper: that our pets help us discover ourselves, our ability to love, to care, to be patient, to empathize, to be responsible, to make a difference for a vulnerable creature who depends on our help.
Sometimes we can learn an even deeper truth: that our pets can be our heroes. Our animals can rescue us, teach us, help us prove our worthiness to ourselves, make us better people. Every loved animal is someone’s therapy animal. Every unloved animal is someone’s opportunity to find his or her inner hero. Read the debut “Family Animal Heroes” Series pieces where the heroes are horses, dogs, and a hamster named Blain.
We have the power of life and death over our animals. They are our vulnerable partners who help us see our own character. Are we the people we want to be when we are with our animals even though they cannot sue us, leave us, or press criminal charges? Are we proud of who we are when we express our anger at our animals, or are faced with their needs at the end of a long day? Our animals can bring out our best and our worst.
A bumper sticker reads, “Dear God, please help me be the person my dog thinks I am.” It is human nature to live in the gap between who we are and who we want to be. Our animals are the mirror in which we see how large a gap remains. To love the animals in our lives is to close that gap.
Charles Darwin believed, “The love of all creatures is the most noble attribute of man.” For thousands of years, animals have been our partners and our property. Now, they can be our heroes, too.
Let us celebrate our animal partners as heroes, and humbly admit that sometimes we are the vulnerable ones. With six degrees of separation connecting us all, we may all owe a debt of gratitude to the tiny therapy hamster, Blain.
Tell us about the animal hero in your family or classroom at speak@animalwow.com.
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