Prayer of a Stray

Dear God,

please send me somebody who'll care!

I'm tired of running, I'm sick with despair.

My body is aching, it's so racked with pain

And dear God I pray as I run in the rain.

That someone will love me and give me a home

A warm cozy bed and a big juicy bone.

My last owner tied me all day in the yard

Sometimes with no water and God that was hard!

So I chewed my leash God, and I ran away

To rummage in garbage and live as a stray.

But now God I'm tired and hungry and cold

And I'm so afraid that I'll never grow old.

They've chased me with sticks hit me with stones

While I run the streets just looking for bones!

I'm not really bad God, please help if you can

For I have become just a "victim of man!

 

 

: Anonymous

Pets and Their Emotional Well-Being

Animals have feelings and can easily experience stress. They react to changes in their environment, and your mood can have an affect on them. Animals can experience over-sensitivity, fear, despondency, loneliness and depression, among other emotions.
Animals are sentient beings that deserve our love, patience and compassion for their struggles. Animals react to environmental stimulus (or lack thereof) and are very sensitive to changes in the household, as small as they may be. Most issues can be solved with great success if you are willing to view your pet as a feeling and sensitive being, and are consistent with your training.
Please remember that we’ve chosen to bring these animals into our lives and domesticate them as part of our family. Even our kids don’t come with a guarantee, so why do we act as if our pets do? Animals do not speak our language. They do not have the same likes and dislikes as us, and are at our mercy to blend with this human world we have brought them into. Let’s not lose sight of this fact.

To help them maintain a good physical and emotional health, pets should be kept in a comfortable and caring environment. There should be a loving, family environment for them in the household which is best suited to maintaining their regular routine. They should be walked, played with and fed according to the specifications of a vet or a specialist.
A good, well-rounded diet also enhances your pet's physical and emotional health. Regular food is often better than canned pet food, and variety in meals may be a better for the physical health, as well as emotionally for the pet. Besides, your pet also needs plenty of exercise to maintain their physical as well as mental condition.
Pets bring joy and happiness into our life. As they say, "A home is not a home without a pet". They provide a sense of companionship that is sometimes lacking in our day-to-day life, and is important for our emotional health. Therefore, as we receive benefits from their love and desire to connect, they also need us to take care of them.

Animal Torture, and the Cruel World They Live In

For animal lovers animals are as important to them as their family and loved ones. But for most of other human beings, animals are like money spinning machines. They would torture and kill animals to sell their skin and meat in order to become rich. Animals are continuously tortured and confined in prison like spaces without adequate facilities, and the brutality meted out to them is overwhelming.
Such inhuman torture results in animals raging against this confinement.  They would frantically claw at the bars of their cages or go into withdrawal or self - mutilation . More than 70 per cent of the animals in any type of confinement have marks on their foreheads because of continuous banging of their heads against the cage bar.
Animals slaughtered for their meat and skin are most often transported in pathetic conditions. Most of them get injured, and many are trampled or gored to death as they are thrown about in trucks that drive at a dangerous speed. Also, animals are tied together with ropes running through their pierced noses and forced into ‘death marches’ for hundreds of  miles. The handlers force the pace of the animals by snapping their tails at each joint and rubbing tobacco, chilly powder or salt into their eyes. Thus, by the time the animals arrive at the slaughterhouses, many of them would be so sick that they have to be dragged inside. Most of the animals are killed mercilessly. Most of these animals’ throats are not slit, rather, they have their legs hacked off or they are skinned alive. To fool the system, most of the animals are often maimed, either their legs are broken or they are poisoned so that they can be declared fit for slaughter. Animals such as alligators are being factory farmed for their skins. Similarly, snakes and lizards are often skinned alive because of the widespread belief that live flaying enhances the suppleness of the finished leather. 

There are millions of  torture and horror stories about animals and we must stand up and act against animal torture. Even a little effort by everyone will make a huge difference. Millions of animals can’t be killed mercilessly to satisfy the human appetite. This is outrageous. There are other healthy substitutes for food and humans can happily survive on them. Killing and torturing animals robs a man of his finest emotion which is compassion. Life is as precious and beautiful to animals as it is to us humans. If we want a better world to live in, we must show compassion towards animals and teach the same to our children.
Animals are meant to be in their natural habitat . They are not meant to be in cages as entertainment material for us. They are majestic and their beauty and freedom must be respected. They need to roam around freely in the forests and wilderness as, like us, they are also born free.

I Am a Horse

You can saddle me or bridle me

You can put a chain around my neck

You can laugh or dock my tail

But my spirit you'll never break.

I'm not a toy to be modeled for fashion

Nor a slave to your every whim

I am a horse, a creature of my own

Like you, I was made by Him.

I will not answer to your call

Yet I will be here until the end

I am not here to be your doll

I was made to be your friend.

I will not run away from you

Nor will I beg for reprieve

I was made to be your companion

So I never shall leave.

 You can treat me like a slave

And perhaps you'll never know

That inside, I am something more

Then the horse on which you go.

You can chain me or starve me

Drive a whip into my sides

But you'll never get inside me

Where the angel spirit resides.

                                                                                                                -- Kit --