October 01, 2024

My good friend, Waldo.

 

Happiness is a warm puppy.

-Charles M. Schultz

 

It’s been a long hot summer here in Massachusetts.  There have been years when it’s been hotter, but it hasn’t ever, for as long as I’ve been here, been so hot, day after day, week after week.  It’s almost fall and the high temperatures are still on the mid-eighties.  For Waldo and me, that’s a nuisance because it means we have to finish our walks before late morning.  It’s not such a big deal really, except when I need to be somewhere else in the morning and then we can’t walk that day.  It’ll sure be nice when things cool off enough that we can walk later on.

Although the temperatures are still hot, the length of the day is getting quite a bit shorter.  That signals many plants to begin their slow transition into winter mode, despite the high temperatures.  Although most trees remain green, a few leaves on the maples and sumacs have started to turn.  A small number have even fallen onto the ground.  The weeds and grasses have gone to seed and the oaks are profusely dropping acorns on whatever sits beneath them.  It’s not unusual at all to be walking along and hear a whack! as one of the things crash to the ground (or the roof of a car).  Outside our door, the ground is covered by large ball bearings deposited by a towering oak.  Tennis-ball sized black walnut fruit can be found on the trail, although just a few.  I’m sure most of them are still hanging onto their branches, waiting for the next big rainstorm to separate them from their parent tree.

Fall is definitely not far away, along with its cooler temperatures.  Waldo and I will soon be able to walk later in the day.  Among other things, that means we’ll be able to go on longer hikes — ten miles, twelve or even longer.  Walking was one of the reasons I got Waldo, you know, and it’ll be good to stretch that to the extent of our endurance.

Walking wasn’t the only motivation I had in getting a dog when I retired, of course.  It’s true I wanted a dog whose needs would inspire me to get off my duff and get the exercise I need to stave off the unavoidable dissolution of old age.  But I also wanted a companion, another living being, to share life with; a personality with whom to interact and hold loneliness at bay.  Waldo has given me all that and in spades.

I am amazed at the spectrum of animals that can form deep bonds with people.  People don’t have just domesticated animals (like cats and dogs) for pets, but also animals whose evolutionary separation from humans is hundreds of millions of years old.  That includes animals like snakes, birds and even spiders.  Some even have wild predators, like lions and tigers and bears, for companions.  Ancient pharaohs used cheetahs for hunting.  They hooded them and took them out to the bush on the rumps of horses and then released them to chase down game, much like how falconry is done.

And homo sapiens is not the only species that adopt other animals. Koko the gorilla had a cat for a pet, as did Tonda the orangutan. Capuchin monkeys are known to adopt and care for baby marmosets.  A crow raised a stray kitten who couldn’t care for itself without assistance.  Elephants have befriended dogs and at least one goose paired up with a tortoise.  There is something more universal going on here than just the penchant for people to acquire surrogate children by bringing animals into their lives.

Oxytocin is a hormone that is associated with social bonding, stress reduction and feelings of trust and empathy, among other things.  Serum levels increase in both humans and their pets as bonds are formed.  Perhaps the production of oxytocin was an evolutionary development that encouraged people to bond together in groups that in turn improved their ability to survive as a species.  Maybe this trait has spilled over to include the ability to bond closely with other animals as well.  But cheetahs are solitary animals as adults and yet they still can form close loving interactive relationships with people.  Just as close as dogs can.  Maybe something else is going on.

The thing that I enjoy the most about having Waldo in my life is the opportunity to take care of another intelligent being.  This is true even when I’m awakened at three o’clock in the morning by the disgusting odor of watery diarrhea because he couldn’t hold on to it until daylight (I’m sure oxytocin isn’t the only, or even the dominant, hormone flowing through me at those times).  I get something meaningful out of being with Waldo, not just because of an oxytocin rush, or anything else that’s an immediate and direct benefit to me.  Something more spiritual is happening.  Something that is not an expression of what I want, but who I am.  I take care of Waldo because it exercises a part of me that cries out to be nurtured and developed.  It’s much like walking Waldo to keep m

e physically healthy and strong, even when it is tiring and painful.  Perhaps oxytocin doesn’t motivate what I do, rather what I do is mediated by it.  The hormone flowing through my veins certainly does make things easier.

Maybe we should try to understand all relationships more in spiritual terms than simply as a mechanistic, hormonally based, biological imperative.

What’s important is, I am Waldo’s friend.

 

He’s listening to me…

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