Omer 2019 Day 20: Pets

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Omer 2019 Day 20: Yesod in Tiferet, Connection in Compassion

Pets

Photo by Lum3n.com from Pexels

Whether you identify as a dog-person, a cat-person, a fish-person, or maybe you're a tarantula-person, pets are one of the most visible ways that we as humans connect with non-human animals. For one reason or another, these animals pull on our heartstrings, and the emotions we feel toward our pets is often intense. We open our doors to them, our kitchens, our backyards, and even our bedrooms. We feel connected to them when we see ourselves reflected in their everyday activities, in their goofy playfulness, in their quiet thoughtfulness, or in their tenacity to get what they want. We are compassionate to their needs, and spend our time and resources providing for them in ways that a parent would spend for their children.

The idea of keeping "pets" originally evolved out of necessity and mutual benefit. It is believed that wolves began to gather on the outskirts of human encampments to make use of our discarded food scraps. Then, as humans realized that we could use these animals to make our hunting efforts more efficient, we incentivized wolves to hang around. Eventually, we were able to gain their trust, keep them in our homes, and bring specific individuals together to make breeding/selection decisions to bring about traits that were favorable to us, like loyalty (think: golden retrievers), tenacity (think: terriers), defensiveness (think: great danes), or watchfulness (think: sheepdogs). Fast-forwarding to today's labradoodles or puggles, we still maintain a connection with our pets through caring, and also maybe a self-serving, compassion.

This year's animal Omer is a collaboration between myself and my friend Halli, a PhD in animal science. Thank you for counting the Omer with us!