Animals Humanize Us

It embarrasses Diane, but when we are out and about and I see a couple strolling towards us with a dog on a leash, I always speak to them about their dog. I love dogs and people love to talk about their dogs, so for me it’s a win/win.

Without any warning as they approach, I just shout out: “Do you sleep with your dog?” If they say “No,” I simply smile and say, “Well, shame on you!” If they say “Yes,” then I follow up with my second question, “Which one of you does the dog snuggle with the most?” Either way, it always gets them talking. Animals can bring out the best in humans.

In the mid-1990’s I began providing mediation services to NE Indiana courts out of my pastoral office as a peacemaking ministry between parents on behalf of the social justice needs of their children. Relocating parental disputes out of a courtroom by outsourcing it to my pastoral office helped to transform the conflict. Additionally, I would reframe their legal disputes by setting them within their lifetime vocation as parents. I made my appeal to parents based on their children’s best interests. Their children, who love and need both of their parents, are also stuck with them for the rest of their lives. So, don’t make it any more difficult for them than it has to be.

Anyway, I was not only blessed with a spacious pastoral office, but my congregation was very tolerant of my love of animals. And when a stray cat showed up one day, I petted her, then I fed her, and then I adopted her, named her “Buckeye” and appointed her to be our “Associate Pastor” in charge of all greetings.[1] And when I got my dog “Argos,” I brought him to the office with me daily and he did much the same.

So, when conflicted parents were sent to me by the courts to address their disputes, the first thing that greeted them were my pets. And without fail, it always helped them relax. You would be surprised how the presence of an animal helps to transform the atmosphere of the mediation and the presentation of the couple. Animals humanize us. And when I interviewed children, my pets created instant rapport and helped to establish a relaxed and friendly environment for them in which to talk.

Dogs are not only a source of unconditional love. They can sense a person’s emotional mood. They can sense when we are sad or upset. And they help us to regulate our emotions. They increase levels of oxytocin, the “love hormone,” and reduce cortisol, the “stress hormone.” In other words, they have a calming effect. Dogs are social animals and naturally create a sense of companionship and connection. Being with a dog helps people overcome loneliness, helps them feel less isolated.

Cats too! Prisons have allowed inmates to adopt cats, and it was transformative of the inmates. Prisons are “hard” places, but when you offer an inmate the chance to have a pet, you potentiate the “soft” in them. Empathy and personal responsibility increases, as does self-esteem and self-confidence, and recidivism dramatically drops. By caring for their pets, inmates are shaped into more loving and understanding people.

How is it that the presence of an animal, the needs of an animal, the welcome of an animal, the affection of an animal, the touch of an animal, can have such a transformative power over us and within us? Animals humanize us because animals draw out our love.

In our fast-paced world, the simple act of spending time with a pet grounds us in the present, making us attend to the needs of another. And in the reciprocity of such care, in the giving and in the receiving, genuine comfort and companionship is felt. I will never forget the gentleness of sitting with my pets snuggled beside me on the couch in my office as I quietly read.

In a world that is largely driven by the question “What’s in it for me?”, cats and dogs become an encounter with grace. In their quiet and faithful way, their serendipitous friendship with us opens our heart to the truth of things, to the truth that “God is love” and that we live only in so far as we love.

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[1] Buckeye died in 2012. She was with us for seventeen (17) years. We had a graveside service for her as we laid her to rest beside the Buckeye tree that the Chapel Belles planted in my honor in the Memorial Garden. After Buckeye’s death my daughter Monica gave me her cat “Molly” who was with us until the summer of 2023.