Over the years of my veterinary career, I've had the wonderful opportunity to listen to people talk about their attachment to pets and hear their stories about the human-animal bond.
There were many different reasons or ways folks described that closeness to their pet, and it made me wonder: What is the glue that binds humans and pets together?
After giving it a great deal of thought I came to one sure conclusion: It's truly a great mystery. Something that still escapes the curious minds of humans to fully grasp. Yet, I do believe all these different stories hold something in common — acceptance. Not the kind of acceptance we humans have with each other; rather, it's an acceptance unique to the bond pets have with us — unconditional acceptance.
Humans have conditional acceptance. We need conditions. At home, children are raised with conditions called boundaries. At school, boundaries are called rules, while in the workplace and the rest of the world, we have "codes of conduct." When conditions are broken, they have consequences. We humans spend a great deal of time struggling over all the conditions we must meet to be accepted, to escape the consequences.
When we are with them, we are unburdened from our busy world of conditions.
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I believe pets give us a great gift of freedom rooted in unconditional acceptance. When we are with them, we are unburdened from our busy world of conditions. This is especially felt by those going through teenage years. Pets don't care how you smell or what clothes you wear. They don't mind if you stutter or walk with a limp. You don't have to be a cheerleader, belong to a popular clique or make the team to earn their acceptance. They don't care if you need a little help with your studies or if you easily make the honor roll. They accept you just the way you are.
Sometimes being greeted by a pet's "happy dance" — their unique way of expressing total acceptance — is just what a kid needs when coming home from a hard day at school. All pets really need from us is to be fed, to be provided a warm place to sleep and, yes, an occasional walk in the park. That's all they require. And in return, we earn their unconditional acceptance.
Robert Slack, a retired veterinarian living in Spokane, is the author of Tails: Curious Stories of the Human-Animal Bond.
