Love: Stories from the Lives of Companion Species

Abstract

As I sit down to begin this chapter, I am being stalked by a rather grumpy cat. Thumbelina – she of the many digits – has had a bad morning involving cat boxes, cars, vets and the absence of any breakfast. I am in no doubt that she is annoyed with me. It could have been far worse – she could have stayed at the surgery this morning, for a corrective operation to remove the goitre causing overactivity of her thyroid gland.

Many people who are around pigs a good deal remark upon how gentle pigs can be when they are well-treated. Much like dogs, pigs seem to have great capacity for gratitude and to know when they are liked… Pigs know their names and like dogs, they wag their tails when happy… Maybe it is only an accident of history that most people consider dogs as pets and pigs as dinner, that the dogs sleep at their feet and the pigs outdoors. Were it not for the size of the pig, perhaps it could have been the other way around.

(Masson, 2004: 26, 29)

Early every morning I take a nice and easy stroll with my buddy, Jethro, along Boulder Creek, near my mountain home. This is ‘his time’, and I follow him and let him do what he wants to do. Jethro is a very large part German shepherd, part Rottweiler whom I had the good fortune of meeting at the Boulder Humane Society. He is very laid-back and trusting, a passionate and well-mannered soul who is at peace with himself. Jethro is a dog of few barks, but when he speaks it behooves me and others to listen well… I let him speak freely for I am ultimately his (and other animals’) voice in matters concerning his life and I want to know what he has to say.

(Bekoff, 2002: xv)

To be in love means to be worldly, to be in connection with significant otherness and signifying others.

(Haraway, 2008: 97)