Dogs never lie about love.

Every time I told my cocker spaniel, Taffy, my very first dog, that we were going for a walk, she would launch into a celebratory dance that ended with her racing around the room, always clockwise, and faster and faster, as if her joy could not be possibly contained. Even as a young boy I knew that hardly any creature could express joy so vividly as a dog.

Animals are, like us, endangered species on an endangered planet, and we are the ones who are endangering them, it, and ourselves. They are innocent sufferers in a hell of our making.

Dogs love us not only because we feed them, walk them, or groom them, or protect them, but because we are fun. How astonishing!

Questers of the truth, that’s who dogs are; seekers after the invisible scent of another being’s authentic core.

Perhaps one central reason for loving dogs is that they take us away from this obsession with ourselves. When our thoughts start to go in circles, and we seem unable to break away, wondering what horrible event the future holds for us, the dog opens a window into the delight of the moment.

Animals love and suffer, cry and laugh; their hearts rise up in anticipation and fall in despair...they feel.