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So I’ve been in the hospital lately. I didn’t feel well so I stopped eating. I had a temperature. After a few days, Don brought me into the hospital. The doctors couldn’t find out what was wrong for another two days, but then found out I got poisoning from a fish. I ate something when I was playing in the water and it made bacteria explode in my belly. I had an IV and a cone and the whole bit. Don had to spoon feed me baby food and I hated it. Finally they put a tube down my throat to get me to eat. I should let Don tell you because he’s more dramatic about this stuff.

Being sick hasn’t taught me anything, honestly. It hasn’t taught me anything other than I don’t like being sick. But I did learn something in the hospital. It all happened on Sunday, when our normal clinic was closed. We had to go to the ER at Dove Lewis. Sunday is their busy day, and we were sitting in the lobby with the other pet owners and sick pets. It was all the basic stuff, itchy skin or throwing up. Nothing to worry about. I was feeling awful so I jumped up on the bench and laid all over Don’s lap. That made me a little more comfortable. And that’s when a woman walked in carrying an empty cat crate. She had been crying very hard, and she was walking slowly. The automatic door opened and behind this woman was her daughter, who was carrying a cat in a blanket, very close to her chest. The little girl wouldn’t come into the ER, but the mom went up to the counter to let them know they were there. Apparently they were expected. Then the mother went back out to comfort the little girl, who was sobbing and holding her cat even closer in the blanket. Then the doctor took them in back so they could their goodbyes.

Don and I sat and watched and were sad for them. And that’s when it hit me how remarkable a humans capacity to love really is. A human can get attached to a person, to people, to a pet, to a home, to a job, to a painting or a piece of music, to their work and so much more. You guys call it love but I don’t know what it is. We don’t have a word in the dog world for whatever it is. But it’s this feeling that you want something else to be better than you are. It’s a kind of willingness to die, and the more willing you are to die, the greater the love. It’s an actual desire to suffer so somebody else doesn’t have to suffer. Sure, Dog’s have it, and we have a lot of it, but it’s different with humans. It’s more beautiful and more robust. I know there are all the jokes about opposable thumbs, but what sets humans apart is something more special than that, it’s their remarkable capacity to love. There isn’t a heart in all the animal kingdom that can produce as much love as a human. It’s their greatest and most distinguishing quality. And when they fail to develop that quality, they are a bit more like animals than humans.

It’s obvious they have to fight within themselves to be more and more human, and less and less animal like, but I think it’s a worthy fight. I hope the girl with the cat is okay. It hurts to love, but it’s worth it. Love wouldn’t be so beautiful if you didn’t have to die a little bit to create it. Love has always cost pain.

The doctors are saying I might get out of the hospital tomorrow. I hope so.