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Human-Animal Bond Demands Our Respect

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By BUZZ KELLY

The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 23, 2008

Dogs, cats, ferrets, etc. They're wonderful to have around.

There is something about the symbiotic relationship between animals and humans, something that goes back tens of thousands of years to the time when the first wolf crept up to a campfire seeking warmth and food in exchange for companionship and protection.

My Beautiful and Talented Wife and I have two dogs. They sleep with us at night, nestling at our feet. It gets crowded sometimes, even in a king-size bed, but we're their pack and they need to be with us.

In return, they guard our house from miscreants, and no possum or raccoon dares intrude in our garden. It's an elemental, atavistic, ancient agreement.

The problem is when we travel, like visiting our son in La-La-Land. Gotta do something with the animals. Boarding isn't what they want; they need to be in their own home with their own food, a safe and well-lighted place. So we rent the "Animal Lady," who comes by twice a day to walk the dogs.

Flying is expensive enough as it is. Staying in a hotel on the other side of the continent is not cheap, either. And when you add the cost of the Animal Lady to care for your pets in your absence, it makes you think what you spend on your animals, and why.

Taking on a pet is almost literally like taking on a child. You are responsible for their welfare. You can't just lock up the house and fly off for a week and let them fend for themselves. They're domesticated animals; they depend on us as would children. And if you leave them totally to themselves, they'll eventually go feral - just as a child would - and that's not something you want to unleash upon society at large.

All the above explains why I'm appalled at news reports of people walking away from their homes, abandoning their mortgages in this sub-prime meltdown, and - in too many cases - abandoning their pets.

Just walking away from them. Leaving them to fend for themselves, not even trying to find a shelter, or the ASPCA, or somebody else to accept them.

Would they do that to a child? And if not, how do they rationalize doing it to a pet?

Ages ago, we made an agreement with that first wolf: "Care for us; we'll care for you." We must keep that agreement today, no matter what.

Buzz Kelly is a Tampa native, former advertising executive and freelance writer.

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