close to us. If you met her longing gaze from across the
room, she would run to you and jump in your lap! Although I always carved out time for each of my children, it
never feels like it’s enough when it is the end.
The closeness we feel with our animal companions
gives me hope for the environmental movement. When we
extend our love and respect to all living things, the changes needed to save species diversity won’t seem like an insurmountable challenge. Lifestyle changes and business
restructuring will become commonplace, based on ethics,
rather than convenience or economics. Saving our extended family from destruction, saving ecosystems for future
generations, finding ways to live within this world with
minimal impact, will be priority one.
We are all connected, and we must all take action,
in whatever ways we can within our powers. You don’t
have to be rich or spend your entire day volunteering for
every cause that comes your way, but rather think, ‘What
is important to me? What can I do to help my family, my
community, my culture, or others in dire need?’ It is not
the amount of things you do, but the compassion you
demonstrate by your dedication to do what inspires you
most. Your shining spirit will light the way for others to
summon the courage to embrace changes in their own
lives. I hope that one day soon, it will be unthinkable to sit
idly by while our animal companions slowly fade away
and become forever lost from this world, extinct to future
generations, or even extinct to our own – gone before we
ever knew they existed.