animal bonding

There was a book review in Saturday's Gazette for "Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain", by Martha Sherrill, which relates the story of Morie Sawataishi, who reestablished the Akita breed after WWII (at which point there were no more than 16 dogs left.)

What blew my mind was this bit:

When his dogs die, he preserves their pelts as totems - a primal, primitive
connection to an object of love.

"I touch he pelts," he says, 'and I remember everything."

His commitment is such that he has never sold a dog, not once. He gives
puppies away as gifts, or barters one for services, but to take money for a dog
strikes him as a violation of the proper, mutually selfless relationship between
man an dog, where you feel "honoured to even possess such an incredible animal,
much less be loved by him."

Wow. If only all animal breeders felt that way, maybe shelters wouldn't be overflowing, the expression "puppy mill" would cease to exist...and pigs would fly, I know. Still, it's an incredibly noble sentiment, one that people need to hear.

Friday in six: Paid to prepare words for others.

Saturday: Carrefour Laval, more for him again.

Sunday: Snowflakes like styrofoam mean further hibernation.

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