My best friend in the whole world

* WARNING!!!! Do not trust anyone who dislikes animals. Furthermore, do not trust anyone who is unkind to animals. Huge red flags.

These are my two best friends in the whole world. Our dog Sunny and my life partner Joe. I don't know how I would manage without either one of them. I suppose I would have to, but I would never be  the same person. Sunny gets me through my hardest days. When the depression and the dreaded apathy sets in, she is often the only light I can find. Of course, my partner also makes living bearable. And our adult children. 

Being surrounded by my loving family, is what keeps me going on my hardest days. And make no mistake, Sunny is a family member, she is not merely a pet. With the fact that my children are grown adults now, Sunny has become my child. I am her mom. I make up silly songs for her, just as I did for my children. She needs me, and I need her.

To answer todays writing prompt tho, I do not have a particular favorite animal. I think I could bond with any kind of breed of animal. I grew up having a lot of animals around me. I took them for granted. I didn't fully bond with most of them. I won't get into the reasons for that. 

It took me a great many years to learn to fully appreciate animals again. And that was actually a very painful process, it is still painful. Invasive thoughts of animals in the world who are suffering, plague me daily. Thinking about horses, makes me feel especially vulnerable. 

I avoid most things on social media that have anything to do with abused or lost animals. Or any kind of suffering animal, really. I avoid. I quickly run away from the scene. When I was a child, we had a turkey and one Christmas Mrs. Turkey was served on a platter. I refused to eat her stating, "I will not eat my friend!"

We had chickens, which thankfully were only for eggs. I was responsible for feeding them and herding them into the chicken house every night. The chickens came to view me as their God. My family called me, 'The chicken God.'😂

Loving animals is a painful experience, is it not? We always eventually have to say goodbye to them. The only saving grace when our last dog died was that we already had Sunny around. She eased our grief somewhat. 

There is a great deal I could say about my relationship with animals and how it has evolved from love, to indifference, and then back to love again. I am simply not up for that right now tho. Anyway, I'll end here. Thank you ever so much for reading this.🙂