What Would Thoreau Say?

In our last post we wrote about the dog biscuits and water we leave out for our four legged friends walking through downtown.  Not only did I receive more comment on that post than any other, but many shared it with others.  It was the highest readership ever for What Would Thoreau Say? This morning, now that Bapu has returned (more below) I began to think about the relationship between animals and their owners.  Why did the story about Camo and Riley get such a reaction?  Why did people tell me of their pets or that perhaps they would now leave treats for dogs near their home?  What is it that binds us so to our pets? I think it's the unconditional love and loyalty that we get from them. In the church I served until recently as Lay Pastor, (you can find the post How the Hell Did I Become Pastor? if you scroll down on this blog) I used to say sometimes before services that in this church we celebrated the "unlimited welcome, unwavering hope and unconditional lov...

So, yesterday I sat down and wrote 1000 words about environmental action for a post I was going to put up to follow the last one.  It was inspired writing!  Pulitzer prize kinda' writing!  Man, it was good.  We were all going to read it and run out and join Sierra Club and buy a new electric car.  That's how good it was. Then Riley and Camo left a gift at the front door and all of that seemed irrelevant. We live in the historic district of Leesburg, Virginia and we leave dog biscuits and water out for our four legged friends who come by as part of their daily walk with their owners.  Every morning, whoever gets up first, heads out to change the water and make sure there are enough small and large Milk Bones in the box in front of the house to take care of our guests.  (And it's only Milk Bones.  We've tried the designer kinds, the ones you get at the Farmer's Market, and we could swear we have seen dogs turn up their noses at them.  It's like...