I'm an ENTLEBUCHER SENNENHUND (ENTELBACH MOUNTAIN DOG). How cute!
This is according to the website http://www.gone2thedogs.com/ (Click on Games on the left and then follow the instructions on the right).
The description of this dog rings true. I definately am much happier when given more space.
This got me to thinking though and brought me back in a way to my previous entry. If I were a dog I would feel pleasure and pain. I would love and be lonely. I would seek companionship and affection. In other words, I would have very similar emotions to what I have now - not so different from the me in human form.
This is why I try to avoid species-ism - that ranking of hierarchal upper and lower beings. That is why I try to tread lightly on this earth and avoid that squirrel on the road, offer food to a stray cat, sprinkle some seeds for the birds and donate to various animal causes.
I read a wonderful editorial in the Toronto Star yesterday (22/4/06) in the Religion section by Punnadhammo Bhikkhu that states that animals are not so very different from us.
(http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1145483414729&call_pageid=970599119419)
Punnadhammo is an ordained Theravadan Buddhist monk and abbot of the Arrow River Community Center, a Buddhist forest monastery near Thunder Bay in Northern Ontario. I had never heard about him before. The opinion fascinated me. I agree with the published comments as I too believe that animals are conscious beings.
"... they have experience, emotions and are capable of suffering. They are not so very different from us. The mammals especially have social and familial relationships, and no one who has ever shared quarters with a dog or a cat will deny that they are capable of affection. Just imagine the fear, distress and anguish that must ripple through the seal colony as the sealers go abou their bloody work."
The opinion goes on to state concern and question the view of wild animals as a natural resource that exists for humans to harvest as painlessly as a corn field or an apple orchard. The author of the opinion is so much more eloquent than I can ever be. All I can do is sit at home nodding my head as I read the paper, wishing there would be more people with the same view. Hopeful on this Earth Day weekend that more people will be forward thinking about animals as conscious beings, about the environment and our impact in the long term, and about kindness in general.
Maybe we should all find out what kind of dog/cat/hamster/giraffe we would be. Maybe then we would be able to walk in their paws and be more considerate of their needs.
As for me and my inner Entlebucher, according to www.pets.ca I am lively, high spirited, self-assured and fearless. Good tempered and devoted towards people familiar to him. Slightly suspicious of strangers. Cannot be bribed as a watch dog. Cheerful and capable of learning.
Not too shabby!
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