pulling it altogether.

sorry..i am on a roll.
here is the thing..my brain works slowly with new ideas. its like i see the end of the thread and need to follow it up the chain to get to the point of it all.
a significant part of this blog is my brain working, thinking about things, figuring stuff out.
and i am almost there on this..once i get there, i can think about it more.

animal lovers...people who love animals...everything about animals...stories, photos, animal happily ever afters, even omg! that's is horrible stuff.

i remember my ex telling me i was addicted to animals. maybe i was, maybe i still am.

but...there's always a but...

here is where my head is going right now...animal welfare.
and what an oxymoron that is.
one side of me says animals have everything to do with animal welfare...but then this new fuzzier side (fuzzy in that i can't see it clearly yet..not as in fuzzy-fur stuff)
that fuzzy side says..maybe animal welfare isn't really so much about animals as it is about people.
if the human race is not mentally, emotionally, spiritually, socially healthy...how can the animals possibly be?

in my rescue career, i have literally stepped up to help thousands of animals...and i could have done millions upon millions more.
i could keep stepping up until i draw my last breath for a thousand more. and what have i accomplished? not even a drop in a bucket...shit not even a drop in the ocean because the problem of animals stems from the problems of people.
animals will suffer at the hands of mankind until one of two things happen...either we become extinct or we get our heads out of our ass and learn to think.
and what do we need to think about? who we are and what we do as a species. and that starts with us each thinking about ourselves individually.

and that means me.

so here i am thinking about all of the times and all of the ways that i have been unkind, selfish, disrespectful to my own species.
and i don't need to be like that..i can do better.
i am going to try to be kinder, nicer, more understanding, i can try harder to find the value in humans that i can so easily see in feathers, scales and fur.

if the human condition is healthy...that greatly increases the chances that the animal conditions will improve.

now i don't want to open up a place of human rescue...i am too freaking old and tired. but i can try to be a better person as far as people are concerned. i can spread around a little sunshine, some kindness, some understanding of the challenges faced by others...i can talk about the benefits of kindness, respect, and tolerance and how that can have far more long lasting positive effect on not just the animals but also for us humans.