The Lion's Den

December 20, 2011

Loyalty

As all of you know I am a huge fan of the critters. I love all animals with a great passion because I believe that they are the greatest gift this planet ever received. While I am a lover of all animal species I am especially fond of the K9 species. Within this my favorite species I still have my favorites amongst my favorites of breeds. People often ask me why the dog has become my favorite of all animals. I usually answer this question with describing the following scenario...

Imagine yourself living on a huge piece of property where you have the luxury to maintain every kind of animal you can think of. Let's say that you have horses, cows, buffalo, birds of all kinds, lions, tigers, house cats, reptiles of all sizes, a dog and every other creature you can think of. Now imagine that God forbid the unthinkable happens one day. Imagine that some lunatic decides to break into your property to try and kill you and your family. I know this is an extreme and unpleasant visual but unfortunately one that happens tens of thousands of time every year in the US alone. Now, if this lunatic is about to hurt you and your loved ones, what are all of your animals going to do? Some of them will not even understand what is happening. Some others will not care what is happening. Some, like the cat for example, will understand what is happening and hide under the bed or the closet hoping that you will take care of the situation. Among all animals there is only one that will understand the danger, stand by your side and do battle for you against any danger that might threaten you... the dog.

In my opinion for that reason alone the dog deserves a special place in our hearts. I believe that since the dog is the one and only animal that is capable of loving US more than their own life, we owe him that in return. Within the species of dog there are different breeds which are even more self sacrificing and loyal than the average dog and I will tell you about these very special breeds in one of my next blogs soon. The reason why I am talking about loyalty today is a letter I recently received in response to one of my many posts about the devotion of a loving K9. Here is the response someone sent me:

To Mandy Lion:

"Thanks to YouTube, I actually find cats more awesome than dogs now. They are so cute!!! I get to see cats slap alligators, bears, and even tigers. They are fearless! And then you see them play pianos and play patty cakes and play 'I spy'? games. Why do I need loyalty from my pets? Am I so insecure and pathetic? Am I a control freak? All I need from a pet is that he can make me laugh!"

My response:

I absolutely adore cats and love them for what they truly are. I agree with the poster about their adorable personalities and cuteness. What disturbed me about this post was that this person thought of "loyalty" as a pathetic trade which only insecure people have a use for. When we look at all of earth's creatures from the most evolved and intelligent to the least evolved with virtually no intelligence at all, we find something very interesting. Researchers and scientists agree that the more evolved and intelligent the creature the more pronounced their need for love, affection and loyalty. The lesser evolved and intelligent the species, the more we see the need for love, affection and loyalty diminish.

Look at how killer whales mate for life, raise their young with great affection and then stay in touch their entire lives even after their young leave and start their own families. The same with elephants, apes and so on. Dogs have a huge need for love, affection and loyalty as they show us in how they feel about their pack or family.

As we climb down the evolutionary latter we find that the less evolved a species the more solitary and less caring about others they become. With reptiles the only interaction with their kind is when they mate in order to reproduce. After that it is back to business as usual. The eggs hatch and the young are left to either live or die with no care or protection from either parent. Insects are even less caring. Or let us look at arachnids. The black widow actually kills the male right after mating with him. How is that for loving behavior?

Anyway... what disturbed me is that this person has the mentality of an insect. He feels that loyalty, which is the most evolved expression of love, is pathetic. No wonder we live in a world where the Michael Vicks can thrive. No wonder we have more violence, crime, deceit, wars, murder and suffering than ever before in human history. I feel like we are devolving in many ways. Instead of becoming more caring and intelligent we seem to become more and more like some kind of disease which causes all other creatures on this earth suffer. Love and loyalty are not just important traits. They are THE most important and admirable traits any creature can have. Love and loyalty produces heroes that will protect their loved ones even to the point of sacrificing their own lives.

Love and loyalty makes people stick around and help those that cannot help themselves anymore. Love and loyalty makes us care for each other for life without ever losing affection for each other. It saddens me that this person is too defective to even comprehend the beauty of true love and loyalty.

I guess there are many people like this one here. I guess that is why man has become something other than a mammal. All mammals live in perfect equilibrium with their environment. If nature is left alone it works perfectly and no species will wipe out another because genetic wisdom keeps perfect balance. If wolves, for example, killed every single deer then canis lupus would go extinct but that would never happen if left alone.

Man, on the other hand does not act like any other mammal on this planet. Man acts like a virus. A virus takes over an area and depletes it of all of its resources. Once nothing is left the virus moves on and does the same thing to another area. A virus does this without thought or worry about the fact that once all resources are depleted the virus itself will die due to the lack of resources to consume.

Man does the same thing. We mindlessly destroy resources without care about what that does to all other species, mother earth and eventually ourselves. Like a virus we take over an area, deplete it of all of its resources and when nothing left we move on to another area until one day there is nothing left and we as a species, along with all others, will go extinct.

We don't have to be a virus to this planet. There is a cure for this disease. It is love and loyalty. Love your family enough to want to provide them with clean air and water in the future. Be loyal to them by fighting the good fight and keeping this earth and therefore ourselves alive. Be loyal to your loved ones. Be loyal to good values and the person you see in the mirror. Only then will we have a chance to create a better future.

Your friend,

Mandy Lion

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