Towards Freedom

About 3 times a year I send money to different dog and cat rescue groups to pull dogs and cats from high kill shelters, especially those who are still gassing former pets to death. It's pretty awful to see these once beloved animals turned over to shelters for such frivolous excuses as: "we just had a baby and don't have time to care for our cat", or "we are now working longer hours and it is a shame to crate our poor dog all day long". The list of reasons for dumping pets is endless.

While driving to work one day, out of frustration I heard myself say aloud to another driver "you're driving like a turtle", "move along little doggie". It bothers me to drive slowly since there are many other places I prefer to be than in a car.

What bothered me more that day was that in one sentence I used animals as similies twice. It occurred to me how many times I have said: he works like a horse, who let the cat out of the bag, eats like a pig, like water off a duck's back, he's a little ham, scaredy cat, and feeling sheepish. Most of us have grown up with language that uses animals as analogies, similies and metaphors and have not given much notice to how demoralizing it is to use animals in a negative context.