"You become responsible forever, for what you have tamed"

`Men have forgotten this truth,` said the fox. 

`But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.`

/Antoine de Saint-Exupery/

I believe that we have all read this and most of us had parents who wanted to teach us to be responsible when we were children. How is it that we forgot?

I ask myself very often this question. I always had a soft heart, since I was very little, and I always wanted to take all the stray animals home. All of them! I didn't care if that cat had only one eye, or the dog wasn't pretty. I just wanted to take them home and love them. I was a lucky kid in this aspect, I grew up surrounded by lots of animals. I never much cared for people, they always have let me down. But animals were different, they were my friends, and they have always loved me, for who I am. They didn't care what I am wearing, if I am a popular in school, or for anything superficial people seem to value so much. They just cared that I was there to tend for them.

 

For as long as I can remember I was responsible for my own animals. I had to clean up after them, water them, feed them (except for the dogs), fix their places (of course when I was very young with help). First they showed me what they need, how much food they get every day, and after this it was my responsibility. Not all the animals were mine, so I wasn't the only one caring for all we had, but I helped out with all of them. I will try explain, so you can get a better picture. For example we had rabbits, that we got for every Easter. So the rabbit I got was mine, to name, to play and to tend for and when autumn came and the rabbit grew up I helped kill it and clean it. It may seem a little harsh, but from young age I was taught that animals have their purposes, there are the ones we eat, the ones we keep for protection, and ones we keep because they are pretty (like birds, they have their use, they make your garden or house beautiful, and they cheer you up with their beautiful songs). Of course participating in the rabbits end was not obligatory, but I had a stomach for it as they say, so I did and never regretted it. On the other hand we had a really big aquarium in the house, which was my father`s pride and joy so he fed the fish, but the aquarium was very big, so when cleaning came I helped.

During my childhood we have taken in lots of animals, dogs, cats, birds, you name it, we probably had it for a period of time. Of course there were the ones we only homed for a while, like a couple of birds that were hurt, or dogs our friends couldn't take with them when they moved away and later we found new homes for them (since we had limited resources too). But we have never throw and animal on the street, no matter how much trouble was with it. Once a Saint Bernard came to live with us, it was a cute dog, but it just didn't like to be closed up. We had a big part of the garden fenced down for the dogs, we had about 2 meter high fence above the ground, and about half a meter under. This dog would dig under it, or jump above it all time, so had to keep making the fence deeper and deeper and higher and higher. At the end we even had to make a concrete floor so it wouldn't dig out. And yes it was difficult with this dog, but we never thought about just letting it go because it would have been easier on us.

 

When my grandparents dog died, we went to the shelter close to us to pick them up an other one, to surprise them. It was the worst thing for me, I got so sad seeing all those animals in small cages cooked up, hardly getting any attention. I remember I kept begging my father if we could take some home (we already had 6 dogs at that time). So the answer was no of course.

 

We did buy 2 dogs in my childhood, however most the animals we acquired came to us by faith. They just sort of walked into our lives.

 

And a couple of months ago it happened again. I have lived most of my life in a house, with a garden. But as I grew up I moved into a flat, and now with my other half we still live in a flat (I hope one day this will change, I miss having a garden). We both think keeping a dog in a small apartment is a torture, its not good for anybody, not for the dog and not for the people. So even though we both love dogs (also I love most animals, he doesn't so much, but on dogs we both agree) we didn't get one, because we didn't want to put a dog in a small apartment, we felt is wasn't fair. We also moved around some the last years, so it would have made it even harder. But a couple of months ago, one day I was coming home and I saw a dog running throw the little grass (I wouldn't call it a garden) behind our building, but then it disappeared. Couple of days later I saw it again. Then I figured out she was living in an empty half building just across us. I took her food, petted her, it was love at first sight you can say. She was very kind, no barking, just a little scared (who can blame her living on the street?). A couple of days later I showed her to my other half, and they connected too instantly. So for a week or so I took her food whenever we had some leftover, I played with her, whenever I had some time and we were discussing what to do.

Of course my heart said to bring her up and that's that. But it wasn't so simple. We are on a tight budget and I didn't feel that it would be right, what if we cant feed her? What if she gets sick and we have to spend on a vet? Having some experience I know that just the vaccines cost dearly. Knowing that next year we are moving again was also an obstacle, since with a dog to find a house its not easy, and since we dont have a car transporting her from one city to an other will be difficult too. When we struggle to pay our bills, its hard to make a decision that you bring an other hungry mouth to the table
(and she was hungry). Well at the end our hearts were bigger than our pockets, so we brought her up. Bathed her, cleaned her from flees, got the vaccines (thanks god one of us is a doctor, because like this we only had to buy the vaccines, but we didn't have to pay for the vet to give it to her), got her a leash and a collar, and she got an old towel that she declared her bed. And we live happily ever after:-)

 

 

I told you all this little stories, so you can understand how I feel about animals. I hate animal torture, I hate people that buy animals and then throw them out. I dont understand how people can be so irresponsible with an other life. For me animals, are not just things that you can get rid of when you are bored of them. They need you, even if you are not in the mood to walk them or play with them. And more importantly, its not just that we can love them, they have feelings too. They love us with all their might, and they show this to us every single day, how can we be so mean to them?

Not that long ago (unfortunately!!) I was happy that they are making progress, they make new laws against animal torture. But if you truly look at it, they are almost no use. I can see so many times on the news, or newspapers animals that they have saved from being starved or found them completely destroyed and they are nursing them back to health. Nice, nice...but this isn't enough.  The law should also have a preventive affect, and most of the times what is the punishment? If they find the person responsible? The truth is that we can make as many laws as we want, fill up a whole library with them they wont change how people treat their animals.

For this the mentality has to change, the way people think. We are all God`s creatures. How would you like to be treated like this? Throw out on the road? Starved? Beaten? Of course what am I expecting of people?! They cant even treat each other with respect, how can I ever ask them to treat animals with it, especially if they think we are the dominant race. People think they can do whatever they want to everything that is around them, animals, nature. Makes no difference to them. People tend to forget that they are not almighty. Far from it. Just for a moment use your imagination and think that one day you are out in a forest and a bear or a mountain lion, or a wolf or anything comes out of a bush...you are standing there, no gun, and you know that the animal is bigger, stronger and faster than you... are you still the dominant species? Do you still have the right to disrespect an animal? Or would you like the bear to treat you with respect? Or is it alright if it kills you, just because he can. Or think about a tsunami, or an earthquake, or a volcano eruption... can you control that? Are we so foolish to think that nature is our slave?!

 

 I see that with life becoming more and more difficult people just seem to have an excuse for throwing their animals on the street, and funny thing is that they are not even the worst one. The worst ones are the ones that are just plain irresponsible, they buy or adopt a dog and then just get bored of them, because they realize that having an animal no matter how small it is, you have to take time and effort and love to care for them. I wish people would think before taking an animal home.
And I truly wish people would think about the animal they just carelessly pass by on the street. Because its so easy to walk pass by a someone who is bagging for money on the street and its even easier to pass by a poor animals who cant even speak up for themselves.

 People think one of the biggest problem nowdays is the how many people loose their homes and end up on the streets. Yes, this is a big problem, but by far its not the biggest problem we face nowdays. Its just a big problem, and an other big problem is people thinking that animals are here for us to do as we please with them. That they are disposable. They are not! They are just like you and me, and everybody else. And what affects us, affects them too! And there are so few who stand up and fight for them.

 Where we live the situation is really bad, and unfortunately seeing a stray dog is a very common thing. Sadly there are not enough shelters, there are lots of cities that dont have one, and even less people who are willing to hold out a helping hand for these poor animals. And there is too many of them who end up dead, because they poison them, or hit them with a car, or they just starve to death. We dont have a lot, but we are happy to share it, please think about it, when you throw out some left over food after three days, that you could be filling someones hungry tummy with it. It would take nothing away from you to help someone who cant help themselves.

 

There are so many who have said it before me in a nicer way, in a better way. But the meaning is always the same. And I think the dog says it instead of me, plane and simple so everybody can understand!

 

 Thank you for reading, please comment would love to hear your opinion.

HAPPY 200!!

I am  happy to announce that we have reached 200 pageviews. I would like to thank everybody who came by and read what I wrote. Thank you everybody, and please keep coming back!!

Spring at last

Since I have mentioned in my last entry that I have been busy spring cleaning, I thought that would a great topic today. And before you all run away, I am not going to give any advices on how to turn your house inside out, dont worry!

Spring means a lot of things, rebirth of nature, sunshine after a long winter, love in the air, almost the end of school, Easter, spring cleaning, the smell of fresh cut grass, etc... A lot of these meaning have to do with something new, and that's wonderful. One of the things that I like is the new hope in the air. Somehow no matter how dark something seems in a cold, dark winter night, when I still have the same problem on a warm spring day its just doesn't seem so impossible. I am full of hope (even if you think its foolish). I think its like when the sun comes out after all those dark days and it gets warmer and you are outside and you can feel the warmth of it on your skin, you just now (something inside tells you) that there will be summer again (even if a couple of weeks ago I felt like the sun will never come out again). So I feel like this with hope too, somehow something will change, its just has to.

It has been an ugly winter, and a long one too. Filled with much more than just snow and cold. It was filled with ugly things happening around us, wherever you looked. I dont even want to began to list them, because we will be here for a long time. And now the winter is over and spring is here, and maybe we will have some good news. Even though it didn't start out good, think about what happened in Boston (you know what I dont understand? If somebody would try to blow up an EU conference, a G8 meeting, a G20 meeting, or a negotiation between the troika and Greece, I couldn't blame them thinking if we wipe out these greedy politicians it will be better. But why people want to hurt their fellow human beings? This i dont understand! (and just to make it clear, politicians may be humans, but you got no proof, so they dont belong in the why hurt your fellow human beings!)). So even though it didn't start out good, there is hope that it will get better. Well at least in the summer all politicians go for vacation, then is as we call it back home, cucumber season (which means most of the news are not really important and half of the news is about football players(who cares?!)), and during this time if we dont even hear good news the bad ones seem to be less too.

But before summer can come, now its spring and we chouldnt be running ahead of ourselves, we must enjoy what we have now. Because for everything there is a season, and spring is a wonderful season to enjoy. Its warm enough to go for a walk but its cold enough to snuggle up to your special someone in the night.

Spring cleaning is an old tradition, from times where people didn't have so many belongings, when there were no washing machines, hoovers or central heating. All these wonders we enjoy nowdays, and they make our lives much easier. I remember when I was a little girl, I didn't understand the importance, why now we must turn the house out of all of its corners, especially because there were so many things to do around this time of the year (fix the garden, plant veggies, prepare for making preserves, etc). But as I became older and now I have my own to turn inside out, I find pleasure in it (alright, i am special that way, I like cleaning anyway not just in the spring). I treasure the first time its sunshine outside for a couple of days in a row and I can open wide up all the windows and doors and let the spring air fly through the house. I like to put away the winter clothes, its sort of a relief we wont need them again until next year, but I know because i put them away carefully that they will be there. Do all the little cleaning things you were not in the mood for all winter long (like cleaning the windows).

To clean your house is like giving it and yourself a fresh start. And we could all use a fresh start. Something filled with hope, the view of trees and flowers blooming, and the smell of freshly cut grass. When you look at the world like this you can believe that someday it will alright.
As you spring clean you also notice things around the house, some damages that time or the last winter did around you, and you plan. You plan what needs fixing and then slowly before the enxt winter is here you try to finish it. And I truly wish that the people who make dicisions about our lives would do the same.

Look around themselves, see what needs to be fixed, and do something about it. I do want to live in a world like this. Because for as long as I can remember, all I see is that there is a problem (you can pick anything), and then there are big words, promises, and at the end nothing really happens and looking back after years that problem is still there. And more likely it got worst. There are so many people unfortunately out there that think if I pretend that the problem doesn't exist, then it will go away on it own. I will never understand this kind of thinking. When there a problem you just gonna have to try to do something about it, even if you dont know the solution right away, thinking, talking about it and trying out different solutions will help you find the way to solve it. You cant just sit and be like the ostrich when it puts it head in the sand, trying to avoid danger. I know that when you have a lot of problems it can be overwhelming, and sometimes you just need to think about something else. This is absolutely normal. But eventually you are gonna have to go back to it. The longer we avoid an issue the more likely the worst it becomes. And this is what we see around ourselves nowdays, or at least this is how I feel.

I see the problems in the world and it seems nobody wants to deal with it, people just want to pretend its not there. And until they do there are more children who go hungry to school every day, there are more people who loose their jobs, more businesses that close down, more people who cant find a job for years, more young people who feel they will not be able to study, more young couples who feel they cant start a family, more people who feel they need to leave their home countries to put food on the table, more families who give up their children, more families who cant pay their mortgage or rent and they end up on the streets, and list can go on and on and on. And there seems to be nobody who is concerned about all these. Nobody! And you can see these problems becoming worst and worst and worst almost daily. I hear on the news all the time unemployment rose to that percent, new records since WWII, and then the next day new data, even higher. The last week I have heard of three suicides, I know it doesn't seem a lot, but let me explain. I have heard of these not from the TV or some newspaper, these three suicides were relatives of people that surround us. When I was younger I heard of suicides, on the news, usually the ones that they clime up some bridge or caused some big disturbances, but the ones I heard this week, were quiet ones. They were just desperate people, feeling there is no other way. And I felt so sad for them, and for the ones they left behind. (On a personal level I dont agree with suicide, I think its a selfish act, but also I dont have any children yet and I dont need to make a decision on giving them up, because I cant feed them. We have food on our table, and a roof above our head, so I cant say that I am absolutely sure I will never feel like this is the only way out.) It was even worst because even though I didn't know these people personally, I felt like it happened around me. Its like when the neighbor gets robbed, it wasn't you but it was right next door. Somehow they seem to think that the solution is establishing help phone lines. People dont want help lines, they want solutions. They want to work and feed their families. And there seem to be no one wanting to fix this problem.

But its spring, its the season for hope and new beginnings  so maybe we can hope that will this spring will change something...


Please comment, I would love to hear what you have to say:-)

Just a little bit busy:-)

Today I am going to be really short, because I dont have much time. I have been very busy the last weeks trying to catch up with spring cleaning, Easter is coming (orthodox Easter this year is on the 5th may) and we are also celebrating an anniversary, so busy busy busy... but I am soo happy to see that even though I have been busy elsewhere, you guys have been reading my blog. So thank you for everybody, and I promise I will be back soon with more:-)
But in the meantime I also wanted to to say, that I know that last couple of posts were about more politics, than general issues we are facing in our lives, but I also like to make things clear and sometimes the unbelievable lies we hear on the news day after day just get to me.
So please keep reading and comment if you feel like to, and I will be back next week with more....