Sentient beings provide us with love, loyalty, joy

 My wife and I returned to an empty house from a short Christmas jaunt last week to the Wasatch Front to visit the kids and grand kids. After all the bedlam of opening presents, playing games and just being social with 30 people over the three days we were gone, it was in a sense anticlimactic to find such peace.
    The most noticeable thing to me was the sheer loneliness of our house, 120 miles away from our cherished family. We were glad to be home, but the emptiness reminded us of how much we need our kids.
    When your children first leave home and move away it is a tough thing for many who face it. It has been years ago since we endured that, but we both remember what those first few days were like when our youngest son moved out of the house to Minnesota, 1500 miles away. At the time our other two children were not that far away; one living in the Basin and the other in Salt Lake. But as he left we looked at the darkened room he had lived in for so many years. It was an empty feeling, yet exhilarating in so many ways. Once again it was like we reverted to when we were first together with no children in the house. It was a sense of freedom, yet there was an emotional price to pay for it.
    That day last week, was like those times over 30 years ago when there was no one but us.  Our two house dogs had been boarded while we were gone and for a few hours we did not go pick them up. The signs of them were still everywhere; a dog bed here and there, toys scattered around the place in the scramble just before we took them to the kennel on Christmas Eve, and their water jar sitting half full under the counter in the kitchen where it always is.
    And while these material things that added touch of the love of another being were in place the feeling in the house was missing. Rather than wanting a little more time away from them, we found ourselves quickly unloading the truck, and getting things put away so we could go pick them up from the doggie motel. The house being still as it was, was not the normal. While the peace seemed nice, with no noses nuzzling your neck as you lay on the sofa watching television or under your feet while you are trying to do something, the absence of those things made the heart grow fonder.
Substitutes for kids
    I have known many people over the years that never had kids and substituted animals in their stead. People like that often refer to the animals they love as their kids. The same thing happens to empty nesters at times as well.
    With the exception of a few years living in California, dogs have always been in my life. But their relationship to me has changed since my children grew up, becoming not necessarily more important, but their existence in my time on this planet has fostered a new kind of significance in my life. I think it has something to do with being included in the life of a living thing that while in of itself is independent and could survive without you, needs you as much as you need it.
    Anyone who has small children or grand kids realizes that they can be disgusting at times. At that time of their lives with us we can’t wait for them to get to the point where we don’t  have to change diapers or watch what they are picking up off the ground to chew on. The body fluids  and other things that come out of every orifice of their body is often not pleasant, yet we persevere, knowing that someday they will be able to care more for themselves.
We get over the icky times
    In looking back at those times when the kitchen floor was covered with green baby food that needed to be cleaned up or snot that was plastered on the edge of a sofa, we often smile, despite the fact that at the time it happened we felt we had little to laugh about.
    The thing about dogs is that they are eternal children. While we can house train them, accidents sometimes occur. They get into things, eat things we wouldn’t touch, and when sick are much like little kids. Their wet noses smear our windows, their hair gets into everything and the stench of what they roll in out in the yard often gets brought into the house. And when bathed to control the odors, they sometimes smell worse for awhile, and then spread the water left in their coat from the exercise all over the house no matter how hard you try to wipe them off after they emerge from their bath.
    But all these faults and others are made up by one overlying wondrous thing: unconditional love and devotion. Sure they may go to someone else who visits or hands them a dog bone, but you are the one they love, the one they want to be with, the one they truly trust.
    Over the years studies by scientists have shown so much about our relationships with dogs, from some genetic ties to that the love one shows their dog changes the dogs body chemistry (and the owners as well). But we don’t need a study to tell us how much our animals mean to us, whether it be dogs or for that matter cats, horses or other kinds of pets. It is a human characteristic to be needed by something and for them to need something as well.
    I realize that not everyone loves dogs. I know some people who just can’t fathom having one, particularly in their house. And I understand that some people are just plain scared of them. Bad experiences with anything can affect people in many ways. But the thing I see about pets, and dogs in particular, is that their treatment is an indicator of a civilized society. The debate of what the proper treatment of animals is goes on. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has one extreme outlook while those that breed animals for fighting are at the other end of the spectrum. Some people are shocked that the penalties for abusing animals is sometimes worse than it is for mistreating humans.
    I look at it this way. If an animal is happy doing what you do with them, vicious sports excluded, then it can be done. While we can’t ask an animal what they like and don’t like to do and get a verbal answer, it is pretty obvious when they hate something or are scared of it.  
    So in this new year, please think a little more about animals and their lives. If you get the chance to donate money or time to the ASPCA, the Humane Society, Best Friends or any other animal care organization do so. We along with many species are all on this planet together and all are important.
    And who knows. Maybe there is an animal that could change your life for the better somewhere in your future.