'The Measure of a Hero lies in how he treats animals...'

By Nikki Logan 

Someone once said to me in relation to my day job with wildlife, ‘where there’s livestock, there’s dead stock’. Death is the part of owning pets that we all try not to think about. We put our fingers in our ears and sing la la la la, hoping not to have to face the sad reality that one day our beloved cat/dog/horse/bird/rabbit/fish will no longer be with us.

Guinea Pig, in my case.

You might remember my little bloke, Nigel, who made his public debut in a Catwalk last year. Turns out Nigel who was such a ball of life on the outside was harbouring death on the inside—for quite a while now. And this week it grew stronger than he was.

I thought my general heart-soreness was for having lost him but I’ve been examining my feelings and—while there’s no doubt his absence has left a guineapig sized void in our lives—I feel okay about it today. Sad but not heartbroken. Tho there was no question that I adored him. He was a special little fella.

For me it was the losing that was so hard, moreso than having lost him. His evident suffering, mine at having to make the humane choice and have him put to sleep.

But it got me thinking about all things humane (particularly the complicated issues around human euthanasia) and how many people wouldn’t make the humane choice (either bc they couldn’t bring themselves to or just didn’t care enough to) and then those thoughts led me to the qualities in a person (ok, a man just because that’s where my mind always go) that I admire most.

Humane qualities—compassion, caring, sensitivity—are high on my personal list. I simply couldn’t love someone if they weren’t capable of loving an animal.

WashingtonPost.com
Firefighters rescue German Shepherd

Ghandi famously said that the measure of a country lies in how it treats its animals. I think the same is true for people. The best of human nature can be foreshadowed in how a child (or a grown man) interacts with creatures ‘lesser’ than them.

Chicagoist.com

I write nature-based romance and so I have heaps of opportunity for my characters to betray their true nature(s) in their interactions with wildlife. They’re not always completely comfortable surrounded by seals or cattle or frogs but they adapt quickly and they’re always respectful and gentle of the lives they’re interacting with. Equally the fastest way for me to betray the true nature of a bad-guy is to have him shove an animal roughly aside. Just one gesture. Universally decoded as ‘bad guy’.

Hence the opening line of my latest WIP says ‘good guy’…

Sheriff Jed Jackson slowly pressed down on his brake pedal and slid one arm across to stop his Deputy from sliding off the front seat.

Deputy = his police dog and the act of sliding an arm across says more about his decency and kindness than five paragraphs could.

Any port in a...flood.
FactZoo.com

But sometimes doing the right thing for an animal might not look right on the surface. I’m thinking now about those people that collect strays then keep 23 cats locked up in apartments or houses. You know they’re not getting much individual attention, you know they’re not getting the best food, you know they’re not getting much in the way of vaccinations or veterinary care or sterilization. Yet the cry as the RSPCA wagons come streaming in is often ‘but I love them’.

  Sometimes people do—to death.

When it comes to animals, less-is-most-definitely-more, unless you can give your animals a goodly number of opportunities to exercise their free will and are prepared to spend lots of  your own time with/on them.

Roadtrip, Nikki Logan style...

As I write this blog, we’re in our Landcruiser enroute to a farm about 2 hours out of our city where our dogs can run free, explore and discover within the fenced 5 acre property for a couple of days. They’re the immediate beneficiaries of the reminder that Nigel left behind him of the importance of quality-of-life rather than just length-of-life. Losing him reminded me how much we used to do this. And how much the dogs loved it.

So I guess Nigel left more than just a void, after all.

RIP little fella. May your heaven be a field of alfalpha and corn and may your days be gently warmed with dappled sunlight.

Does your real-life hero make you go all gooey inside when he's interacting with animals?