for true animal lovers there is a secret place inside us that remains much like a child. we have this innocent wish to be like doctor dolittle, to immerse ourselves in the sight, the smell, the touch, the hidden lives and souls of all animals.
and mostly we just never get the opportunity. if we are lucky we have that kind of gift with our own family animals. we can have that kind of relationship with our cat (s) or our dog(s) but we dream of it with all creatures. sometimes that craving warps us...not because it is wrong but because we don't know how to participate without interferring. we take our wants and needs and fantasies and bury the animals under a mountain of assumptions and need and wants.
and this is the magic of saints...the opportunity to be with all kinds of animals..to touch them, to feel them, to smell them, to see them...in their own lives instead of trying to make them fit in ours.
there are not too many people who are not in awe of the not only absolute size and power of percy..but also feel the child inside them grow big with the magic of wonder at his gentleness and kindness, his happiness to just get to meet them. he makes people glow when they meet him. he is such a simply and pure light of enjoyment in sharing a sweet and cheerful moment in time with us whenever he can.
it touches people right down to the child forgotten inside them when they meet this innocent gentle giant. all of the animals here can do the same but because percy is so big...so foreign to most of us...we notice it more with him...he is more outgoing then say...ellie or czar.
he greets one and all with open peaceful, trusting friendship and a deep curiosity and a very long tongue to taste it all....he embraces all people with his magical heart (and tongue)..young and old, big and small and welcomes them to his peaceable world.
saints is a place of opportunity...the walking forgotten, the soon to be dead find a safe home here or maybe someday even better, where kindness and care surround them for the rest of their lives. it is also a magical place of opportunity for humans to get up close and personal and submerge themselves in many wonderful animals lives. and it is a place where a gentle and kind cow can become famous. over the years i am sure at least a thousand people have met him and walked away feeling his light warmly glowing inside.
when i look back at where percy and the others came from to where they are now...they are not just some sad and nameless beings behind wire cages in shelters waiting til their time is up, or breathing meat on the way to the slaughterhouse, they are not forgotten like pops was in some field, or starving on the street like black bart....they have names now and personalities..now they are real...and magical to many of us.
it is the wonder of possiblity...the magic of opportunity that finally brought them into our reality where we can see and feel and know them.
they are no longer some childhood fantasy of longing...we found them again after we grew up.
animals are the bridge back into our childhood where all was supposed to be good, right and fair. animals are the bridge back and forward for us to become better people living better lives..they teach us about caring, respect and just being..the happiness in the pure light of life.
Amen!