“I hope today is kind.”

          This above statement is so simple.  It is filled with such innocence.  “I hope today is kind.”  The first words out of one of my coworker’s mouth this morning.  Tragedy surrounds us.  It absorbs us.  The people who walk in don’t always see it.  Almost every day we have someone come in to reclaim his or her dog.  There are fees that go along with getting your animal back healthy and safe.  It can get very expensive.  People don’t seem to think it cost money to pay people to feed their animals, clean up after them, and make sure they are medically okay.  A majority of people get irate when they have to pay.  They make a scene, cry out, and yell at us for the injustice.  But about once a week there is an unfortunate person who doesn’t get the chance to yell at us because they are in shock that their pet died.  Cars hit cats and dogs too.  This is a very simple sentence that no one thinks about.  It is not pretty.  Their faces fall off.  Their guts drop out.  People come in to find their missing property that they loved so much.  It’s not just a marketing gimmick when humane societies say they save lives.  If dogs weren’t brought in, many of them would not make it. 

            That unfortunate person has a terrible experience in front of them.  I take them to look through all the dogs we have in the building.  No matches.  I go up front to look in the computer at the deceased.  There in front of my face is a match.  I ask about sex, breed, color, location, anything to distinguish this animal.  Everything lines up.  I get the death book.  Lifting the pages I show them a picture of their once beloved pet.

            I have seen strong people, grown men break down and cry.  The same man who on the phone was upset when I told him if the dog was here there would be fees to get his dog out is now crying in front of me.  Not to be snarky, but we both wish he was yelling at me instead.

            “I hope today is kind.” We mumble.  I hope today someone realizes that their life is not the only one worth living.  I hope today people come to see how precious life is; how short it can be.  Yet I know when I go into work tomorrow there will be someone peeved at me because they have to pay to get their animal out.  To receive a healthy happy animal cost money.  Some jackass who says, “Hey dude should I pay $80 to get my cat?”  If you have to ask that question because you’d rather spend the money on something else, then the answer should be no.  But animals in society are property.  Property that they have the right to destroy.

“I hope today is kind.”  We utter under our breaths.

            I once refused an owner request for euthanasia because the animal was perfectly healthy.  I told the customer that they could surrender the animal but we do not do euthanasia for healthy animals.  A lie.  We are supposed to do euthanasia for anyone who requests it.  The logic being we are preventing over population and dumping of animals.   Still, my conscience would not allow it.   The person left.  When I was discussing it with a coworker I told her, “What a shitty situation.”  Her response was, “Is it?!!?”  Her point being the people we adopt out to, a lot of the time, suck.  They don’t care.  The animal really isn’t in any better circumstances.  They have just changed hands to be neglected once again.  My reaction at first was complete horror.  Yet she raises a good question: Is death better than a shitty owner?  I don’t know.  I don’t like to think so.  With bad owners there is always a chance that you may in the future get a better one.   With death there is no hope.  

            I hate it when people glorify death.  The problem with religion is that we are waiting and praising the end.  Why?  Why do we exalt something that we have no proof of?  The problem with believing in an afterlife (especially in the case of animals) is that it gives you less cause to fight for the living.  The present.  The life that is in front of you now.  It gives you an excuse to say, “It’s okay.  His soul is living on.”  I am not saying I don’t believe in any kind of thereafter, I am just stating the problem it can have on peoples’ mentality.

“I hope today is kind.”  We pray silently.

            Many of my coworkers are not ready to give animals the status of people in society.  For the most part I agree with them.  Yet, I simply do not understand why animals have to be given the status of “humans” by society for us to protect them.  It has gotten a lot better as the years have gone by.  In many cites you now have Animal Protection and Control Units.  In large part, it is the way we think that has to change.  Many people believe they have a right to own and control an animal’s fate.  Even if people have control, I do not think God intended us to have absolute power to do as we wish.  Perhaps animals are not humans.  Maybe we are “higher.”  But that does not mean God has forgotten his other creatures and has forsaken them of His love.  It’s odd how people use religion to pardon their blame in death and use it to make themselves feel better but do not use it as a rally cry to protect God’s most absolute gift: life.