Yes Coyote - I can tell that your parents never let you have a pet when you were a child. So sad - they teach us many things and besides they never talk back or theorize on what they know nothing about.

Coyote wrote: "People without kids and their pets! Too bloody much."

Coyote, you must enjoy being insensitive given the tone of this (and your many other) posts. But that's your loss.

It's a well researched fact that pets stave off isolation and despair for those living alone. They help us retain our humanity and are especially important for people with serious mental health issues.

Hey, Coyote, is that really you? I thought the story was very sweet, and I got a good laugh when I read the part about dogs being good listeners. I don't particularly believe in using animals for pets--or anything else, particularly not FOOD, but a few months ago one of my neighbours' half Siamese cats decided that it liked me more than it liked it's uh.."owner," so it hung out on my porch every day--went home to eat but came right back after every meal. A neighbourhood grouch poisoned it. Damn, I miss that cat. I even cried. Right on, Kelsey. (Pun intended)

I meant its not it's.

Oh, I miss my cat Wolfe. He was my confidente. When he was killed, I cried for a week.

Anyway, your piece about Prince was beautiful. It was a respectful tribute to a lovely and mutually nurturing being.

i've never met a bus driver that can hold a candle to a dog. in fact, most skunks are more sociable than bus drivers.

If you aren't planning to have kids, Kelsey, you might as well care about an animal. It's still caring. It's still acting with kindness for something other than the self.

Coyote, your descpicably contemptuous response to this story of simple human affection reveals more of you than any other single post of yours I have come across.

Nicely done, Kelsey. Ignore the old curmudgeon. Being curmudgeonly is evidently more important to him/her than anything else.

All Coyote said was put things in perspective...no need to beat Coyote up!

I don't have a problem with people wanting to express their sorrow for the passing of their beloved friend (in this case pets). But this article belongs in a blog. This article does not say anything beyond what most people know already; yes, human beings develop affection towards animals, we become attached to them, and the passing of them sadden us, etc. Also, the article does not challenge my thinking on any level (does it challenge yours?). If people want to read "journals" like this, there is plenty out there on various blogs.

What I find more troublesome is the phenomena that many many people in rich/developed society unconsciously place a a higher social standing for their pets than for their fellow human beings. A simple everyday example: I was walking down Robson steet one autumn afternoon last year and saw a homeless person sitting on the ground in front of a grocery story asking for spare change...3 meters beside him was a big beautifully groomed dog patiently and dutifully waiting for its master to finish shopping. Guess who got more attention from the passing pedestrians and shoppers? I stood close by for a few minutes to observe people's behaviour and it fascinates me! The dog got all the prase, padding, and cute talk. The homeless got no change.

I understand why some people find it easier to talk to or pay attention to animals. But I refuse to conduct my life that way.

I thought this story was lovely. It DOES have a place in an online news magazine despite what Stemalot thinks. This is, after all, the "Life" section of the Tyee. Not everything that one reads in the newspaper has to be blood-rilingly, thought-provokingly, intellectually stimulating. An article that is emotionally expressive and deals with what many of us experience at least once in a lifetime (the loss of a loved pet) is very worthwhile publishing and reading. It stimulates that part of us that remembers that we are all human and have many shared experiences. This is just as important in a community as being well-informed on political, economic and other sociological issues.

Coyote, you are most certainly entitled to your opinion on the subject, but there is no need to express it in such a mean fashion. Do you think by posting such mean comments you will change how Kelsey feels about her dog? And how do you know she isn't planning to have children or would like to at some point? That's not what this article is about. It's about an expression of loss. Period.

Well done Kelsey.

All Coyote did was reduce personal meaning to the denominator of whatever Coyote says personal meaning should be.

It's the mark of ideologues everywhere.

It's repugnant no matter it's guise.

This is just like the time my acrobatic rabbit got stolen by my neighbour or "jealous timmy" as i've come to know him.

Thanks for reaching out kelso. I feel like i now have a forum in which to confide my pet grief annonymously...Word to your moms.

I saw the title of this one and almost skipped it. Almost. Because I knew the tears would be pouring by line two. And they are. Especially when K writes "I've caught myself looking at dog owners and thinking "if only you knew what lies ahead." I fear the day my dog leaves me more than the day I lose any human in my life (really, Coyote, it's true). And I adore my friends and family. But they haven't been with me when I've been curled up in bed sick, or in a foreign country homesick, or crying over the loss of a boyfriend or job or just feeling sorry for myself. That's the thing- no HUMAN is ever with you through all those times; how can they be? And I don't know too many humans that will go for a walk in the rain with me, in the middle of the night, for three hours if need be... No one thinks dogs are better than humans- they are so different you can't compare the relationships. And Stemalot- if you want to feel better about all the dogs in Van getting attention- do a google search and punch in "chained dogs (random country name) animal cruelty" or a combination and you should feel better.

I was a little taken aback by Coyote's reply, but my first reaction was "Ah- he's never had a dog." His loss. Your Prince was beautiful Kelsey, and now he is in "off leash" land forever :)

Alright! Alright! Fii did

Alright! Alright! Fii did it.

I admit I was unnecessarily cruel in my initial reaction to this piece. There is a streak of it in me that rears itself up once in awhile, as it did here.

I've had lots of dogs, but I never got all weepy over them, [OFFENSIVE COMMENT REMOVED. -MODERATOR.]. And I've done everything with them, from round up cattle, just go for long horse back rides with them running alongside, ride them around in the back of my pickup, give them shots, take porcuping quills outta their snout, even castrate and shoot them when necessary. (Don't weep more, fer God's sake! I had to be my own vet. Castrating cats, for example, is just like castrating a piglet.)

(Women were not allowed to watch me castrate any critter though. It made me nervous.)

Coyote, it is not a "woman thing", it is a human "thing".

And, you are not a man by any meaningful definition.

:-D And you think your meat drops down out of the sky packaged up in a cellophane wrap, right? At least most of the meat I ate, for a very long time, I killed myself, and didn't hide behind any third party on an assembly line killing floor, with my eyes closed and ears plugged, feigning the saint. I know where meat comes from, blood, gore and all. I know the gut smell that comes out of a critter when you open it up.

And when my dogs needed "putting to sleep", a euphormism for "killing", I had the honesty to do it myself.

Try it. It will give you a whole new perspective on life, including your own.

Nature isn't some kindly and grandmotherly, Mother Nature. There is a need to get real.

Only in the city, you say?

well i'm one of those people that think dogs are a better class of people.

I worked in some some really crappy jobs where People (humans) would treat you like dog shit all daylong. Dogs don't value you on how much money you make,how you look,what kind of car you drive and what you do for a living.

Not that long ago a friend of mine had to put down her dog, HER dog was my best friend, strange eh? this dog loved me to pieces he would listen to me better than his owner would allways jump on me when i came over to vist pin me down on the couch to lick me to death.
i was one of few people that could enter their house when they wern't there, I would feel sorry for any theif that tried to break in to the house when he was there. he was a pitbull sheapard cross and he was feared by many people because of his protective nature
but in reality he was a big suck.
I have had a few dogs in my life time and I know what they can do for a person but one thing we have to be prepared for when owning a dog is the fact that they don't live long.
it seems unfair when your cat that is genaraly a pompas snob unless the want something can live to 25 years sometimes.

I would much rather have a dog as a customer than a person because people in this world are self centered greedy rude and disrespectful and shallow wich is why our world keeps getting worse and worse. we could learn alot from a simple mutt

Every year, just for our own family and help, we'd kill, clean, pluck and gut, skin, quarter and saw into cuts 2 steers/heifers, 30 chickens, a dozen turkeys and 3 pigs. (Now and again, we'd run an old milk cow through for hamburger.)

Every spring, I'd wander around the yard, corrals and barns, and have to shoot any cat or kitten with weepy eyes (pneumanitis) or showing serious signs of inbreeding. Otherwise, we would have been over run with inbred, sick barn cats.

The need to shoot a dog was a rarer thing, but did happen on a number of occassions I recall. And every year, of course, there was a vigorous programme of birth control that had to be carried out on pigs, cattle and anything else that needed it, castration of the males, being the preferred methodology.

That's a side of the real world most of you folks who have an urban screen between yourselves and the real world, never see.

I grew up on the farm and by the time I was 16 I had seen many animals die or be put to death for various reasons. Some of those animal deaths occurred in their natural environment. Some of those deaths I wqas intimately involved with. That is the difference between the comments, I suspect, come from largely city dwellers and Coyote. Of course some of you got all warm and fuzzy reading the article and are reacting to the cold shower of Coyotes comments. Can't say I have a lot of sympathy for those people but I understand the reaction is not rational but visceral.

While I respect that there is loss felt when a pet dies I also realize that there is a need for perspective like Coyote says. As I read the article I bounced between sympathy and cyncicism. Much in the same way that I listen to my mother (who by most standards is wealthy) discuss her problems. I sympathize that she feels pain and needs to suffer and heal like anyone and yet I have to put that in context that she is not really suffering by most peoples standards.

The first thing we'd take out of the gut pile, after we'd opened a bovine up and spilled it onto the ground, was the liver. We'd have a bucket of ice cold water handy, into which the liver would go and be taken straight up to the house.

There ain't no finer cut of meat than the liver, right out of a fresh killed animal. That very night for supper, we'd feast on liver.

Others like the heart, though that was too, too savage for me. Even the tongue. But I never cared for anything that came out of an animal's mouth.

I do like eggs though. :-)

And you know what? I like cattle and pigs, and all critters. Cattle and pigs are a whole lot smarter than most folks think they are.

Ever watch a cow funeral, where they mourn around the carcass of the dearly departed, just like elephants do. It's a sight that will raise the hair on the back of your neck. Always did mine.

Life and nature is really, really way more complicated than some of the simplistic formulae being expressed here really is able to appreciate.

And I ain't telling you all this to be cruel, or simply to shock you. Eh! That's real life, not idealized life.

And you think your meat drops down out of the sky packaged up in a cellophane wrap, right?

It doesn't come from the sky?!! what?!!
I'm horrified!!!...lmfao

i know what they wrap sasauges with and there is nothing like having poop allover you hands to make those sausage skins..mmmm mmmmm
if you people only knew what you were eating when u order sausage and eggs at a restaurant.
just remember that to kill all bacteira make sure those sausages are well cooked ok.

The inlet I live on borders wilderness area so there are a number of people who live on their own in small cabins farther up the inlet where their dog or their cat is their only companion. And companions would be a good word for them.

All the same, like Coyote is saying, when you live far removed frome the city, nature becomes wilder and a little less tidy, more true to nature (excuse the pun). I have seen men here who loved their dogs, who would lift them up and help them into the back of their pick-ups when their dogs grew too old to make the jump themselves and at the same time be the ones who would end their dog's life when there was too much suffering. No convenient vet to shoulder the harsh duty.

But what I don't remember is these same men being quite so focused on themselves and their own pain. Not that they didn't feel any but like nature itself, there was no self-absorption. Much what warpengi is alluding to above.

"Not that they didn't feel any but like nature itself, there was no self-absorption. Much what warpengi is alluding to above."

Interesting that you picked that out lynn. That is exactly what I was alluding to. As well, the animals themselves lack that self-absorption. Animals don't go around moaning and whining that this is gone or that isn't the way they like it. They just see what is and deal with it. The only times I see animals express dissatisfaction is when a human doesn't listen to what they are saying.

"The only times I see animals express dissatisfaction is when a human doesn't listen to what they are saying."

warpengi: That delightfully brilliant thought deserves framing.

Back to Coyote...I think it is your demanor on this article that rattles me. I've had pigs named various things.i.e...pork chope hambone, etc. but thats to keep me from becoming too attached. There's the chickens and the rabbits which I truly cold not handle...too much slaughtering to get a little bit of flesh. And now I can hardly eat any type of meat because of all I have learned about how those for alaughter animals are treated and with what they are treated with, i.e. hormones, antibiotics, etc. It hits me even worse when I watch those documentary's' like 'The Corporation'...mishapen,looking like monsters. So, I can understand where you have qualified your feelings towards emotional attachments to animals. Surely your remember 'Old Yellar". But my beef is no more cause there is many other forms of protien than animal meat and besides our rudimentary system works best without eating meat.

I think that's great!

"And every year, of course, there was a vigourous program of birth control, that had to be carried out.... castration of the males being the preferred methodology"...Coyote writes. Heehee...ok, I won't even go there. I think Nationalist pretty much summed it up. I lived in Asia, Coyote, and witnessed dogs being strung up alive about to be burned in preparation for boshintang (dog meat), puppies stuffed into cages piled upon cages (after turning down the wrong alley), stray dogs hit by cars (hell- people hit by cars) and the drives speeding away. I sat with many a dog and petted it as blood poured from its wound and it looked frantically around as it drew its last breath (I may have been the first person to ever pet it). I know about the death of animals, and that life and nature is complicated. I've simply come to much the same conclusion as Nationalist- I feel peaceful and happy with my dog in a way I rarely do with humans. Nothing wrong with that. People are good, too. I just think dogs in particular are grand.

I thought a lady or two might appreciate that. :-)

But ehhh! Now we're getting back to something resembling reality, rather than this maudlin teary thing. And I understand why folks, especially city folks, need their pets, but really, lets be honest, even the best intentioned more often than not has them living in situations entirely unnatural, stifling and emotionally starving to them. We create these pets for OUR benefit, not theirs. Otherwise, born into natural conditions, they'd choose to live entirely differently than the copious tins of Frisky, obese, pampered, neurotic little "toys" we create for our own amusement, through selective breeding programmes-, and for all manner of freakish characteristics. Which real nature would cull out on some coyote's food plate as soon as it turned up in the wild, most of them.

People, especially in the city, in my view, are so goddamned cruel, even when they think they are being kind-, and all weepy maudlin about "their little darlins".

Come on! It's really all about you, not the critter. If it was about the critter, they'd be anywhere but locked up in your apartment or some backyard cage, pacing back and forth with wild eyes, where they are being bruralized, however unintentionally and well meaning.

Sometimes I actually think the Animal Liberationists do have it right. Free All Critters! You're hungy? Hunt them down and kill them yourself-, at least then we would be being honest about it all.

I know, I know. It ain't gonna happen. I even accept that.

Life is complicated, especially as many of us have chosen to live it. That's really why all the weepy maudlin thing in the first place.

Yes, Coyote, I'm proud to say that I've seen a cow funeral. They have a special voice for it, a special lowering of the head. It doesn't last long.

I've also had a cow (Hereford-Shorthorn cross) try to speak to me. Or maybe she did speak to me. I had been away from the ranch for several months. On my return, I went up to the winter pasture to visit the herd. When the cows saw me coming, the three oldest ones hurried to the fence. The alpha-cow reached her nose out as far as she could, toward me, and formed an "O" with her mouth, and made a particular sound, "Oh, Oh, Oh." A greeting, an acknowledgement. It didn't last long, either -- but it left me feeling specially blessed to this day.

Thank you, Coyote. I've never met anyone else who knew about these things.

Now, here's a woman with some understanding of the lives of the critters in her life. A pleasure BC Mary. Loved your story.

Lynn and Warpengi. I know good folks when I hear them.

I have three dogs. When one of them dies I will feel a deep sense of loss. Coyote and I share a farm history, I've killed chickens, turkeys, rabbits, and helped slaughter cows and goats.

A neighbour gave my grandson a baby potbellied pig. We named him Ruarhaigh Boar. I thought okay, miniature potbellied pig, shouldn't take up too much space...well, he was a baby when we got him and at night I put him in the shower and pulled the curtain, the idea being if he disgraced himself there was a drain there and it would be easy to clean...in three days that creature was fully house trained, he would have burst before he messed in the house. He came when he was called, he raced out with the dogs to challenge anyone who came to the farm (scared the J.W.'s half out of their nice gray suits). He grew, and he grew, and he grew. I guess they are only "miniature" if you starve them.

Ruarhaigh formed an attachment with my aged poodlymutt Sir Scruffy. Dog and pig slept together in the hallway just outside my bedroom door. Dog and pig romped. Dog and pig strolled the farm side-by-each. Dog and pig lay down the boundaries to keep the ducks away from the house because ducks and geese shit all over the grass and Ruarhaigh figured that was HIS grass, to eat.

Then the dog died. That pig wept tears. When a pig weeps it's tears are the colour of tea. He lay in the hallway and wept, snuffing at the section of the blanket that still smelled of his bud. That pig wept so much I went out and got him his own puppy. It took a week, but the pig accepted the boxer/lab cross, she was his. When she pee'd on the floor the pig had a roaring fit! Shoved her out the door with his snout.

And when Ruaraigh Boar had to be put down because he'd dislocated something in his back, his hind end was paralyzed and he was in excruciating pain, I ran an obituary in the local paper.

People say Get another pig. I don't want another pig. I miss my guy. I have kids, I have grandkids, I love'em all,but I miss my pig.

Even so, I still enjoy bacon.

Coyote, I have been enjoying your contributions to the comments section over the last year. I find I share your views on most things political so appreciate your comments.
I think lynn is good folks too.
I think what Stemalot had to say bears rereading. I love my cat and she is a major part of my life but when she is gone I will have an easier time replacing her than I would any of my human friends. Anyone who values their pets more than their human relations, well, there's something wrong with that value system. That's not to say I don't appreciate animals. I think a real pig could do a better job than the imitation one currently sitting at the premiers trough. But, hey, that's another conversation;~)

Well you make good points, Coyote, but I guess I'll never really know if my dog would have had a "better life" if he'd been left under the wheels of that truck as a puppy (I didn't pick him up, by the way, my friends did- I might have though "aw, poor thing", and walked right on by). I do know that he looks pretty damn content right now, lounging by the fireplace. Your points about "copious tins of frisky, obese, pampered" etc were right on- I am the first to agree some people go over the top. But then your comments beg the question- are we humans not "living in situations entirely unnatural, stifling and emotionally starving to (us)"? I went into superstore today (first visit ever- I'm not kidding), and I nearly had an anxiety attack. I just wanted to get the heck out of there- I just wanted toothpaste!! I couldn't find it for the life of me... so I guess you have a point, it's like we've decided to take the dogs with us- if we have to live in these boxes so do they- join us in our misery. All I know is when my American friends rescued my dog and I took him in, we thought we were doing something compassionate and kind. Not self-serving. It's been a challenge, the responsibility.

I didn't mean I value my pet more than my human relations (do I??) but heck, even my own mother has described me as "cold" so maybe I just relate better to animals for whatever reason.

anne cameron, I loved your Ruarhaigh Boar story but your, "Even so, I still enjoy bacon" frightened me.

Just have to add this. Dogs do hold a grudge. They sulk, shoot dirty looks, and use body language eloquently. Twice I've had a devoted dog-friend turn into a sulk.

1) My Great Dane. She greeted the arrival of my baby daughter with genuine celebration, smiling and spinning around so that her bony tail (like a bagful of bolts) came perilously close to whacking the 5-day old's head. Sharply, I shouted "Down!" and she never forgave me to her dying day. She grieved and sulked. She'd not only been replaced (she figured) but shamed.

2) My Pekinese rescue-dog. I had been away at SFU for several months. When my family came to visit me, they of course, brought her. I was wearing white. Fang ran through a mud puddle and then began leaping with joyful abandon, smiling. When the first muddy footprint sullied my dress, I shouted "Down!" not having learned the lesson the first time. Fang crumpled and was inconsolable.

Much as I tried -- and perhaps trying so obviously is exactly the wrong thing to do -- I never succeeded in overcoming the accidental damage I had inflicted upon my gentle friends. If I had it to do over again, I think I'd carry on as if it hadn't happened.

In these ways, animals taught me a lot about people.

I grew up with two newfy dogs, 300 lbs of love, drool and tongue. A relationship with your dog is like no other and can’t be explained to anyone that has not experienced it. The poet Byron certainly tried to describe it

NEAR this spot Are deposited the Remains of one Who possessed Beauty Without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, And all the Virtues of Man Without his Vices. This Praise, which would be unmeaning flattery If inscribed over Human Ashes, Is but a just tribute to the Memory of "Boatswain," a Dog Who was born at Newfoundland, May, 1803, And died at Newstead Abbey Nov. 18, 1808.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epitaph_to_a_dog"

I miss my dogs, have a great cat that thinks he’s a dog or at least acts like one. My wife is Muslim and afraid of dogs, but I think my friend’s newfy pup is curing her, it hard to resist those big brown eyes

this story makes me :)