Dogs, Cats, People

Disasters
rip the gloss and window dressing from the bare bones of the daily lives
of regular people. One more aspect
of the American reality, which many of us suspected or intuitively appreciated,
is the depth
of feeling in this country for our pets.

By pets, we are referring mostly to cats and dogs. Sure,
we know people who keep ‘gators, constrictors, black widows and weird,
inter-species blends, but your average American family has dogs or cats,
or both. The thing we have always suspected, and which is being bourne
out by Katrina, is that millions of people care more for their pets than
for the human members of their families.  In some cases, more than
they care for their own safety.

Over and over we are hearing from people who failed
to evacuate that they did not do so because they couldn’t abandon their
pets. Folks
on their roofs, with their dogs. Throwback swamp dwellers, holed
up with a shotgun and a trusty hunting dog. Old ladies trapped in attics
with their cats, still fine because they bought
water
and cat
food before
the storm hit. It seems obvious that most of the humans who remain in
the doomed city are there because they refused to leave their pets.  Many
of them will die before they leave their animals, knowing that they would
be leaving them to a slow and agonizing death.

What are we to make of this selective zoophilia? That
humans still need to live with and learn from some others from among
God’s creations? That in these perfidious times, the constancy and loyalty
of a true friend are invaluable, even though that friend be canine or
feline? That Americans are pathetic losers with such deficient social
skills that they talk mostly with dumb animals who can’t talk back?

Throughout the Britain-sized disaster area, millions
of pets are suffering tonight, abandoned, starving, sick, wounded, and
millions
of children and adults are missing or mourning their pets. Some
of them have regressed to feral pack behavior, and will eventually have
to be shot, and some of their pets as well. We understand some
animal protection groups are trying to rescue pets and reunite them
with their owners. Good luck to them, and God bless the bayous.