His name was Jack, but we eventually called him General Jackson. He was twelve years old and had a tumour on his tail. He was left at the Vancouver Pound because of the tumour. He came to live with us while AAS found him an adoptive home. He was with us for a couple of weeks and we discovered that he had become such a big part of our lives that we could not let him go anywhere else. He spent the rest of his life with us and, when he died in my arms, he taught me more about grace and dignity in death than I have learned from any other being.

His name was Barney. He was a little, blind, English Cocker Spaniel. We eventually called him Barney Barnswoggle, the Pickle-tailed Barnwee Bear. Some ladies found him on a golf course in a rural municipality. He was so matted that he had to use his back legs as one leg. He had collapsed and was near death. He had been abandoned and simply wandered till he couldn't wander any longer. On a leash, Barney led me where he wanted to go. He amazed me with his confidence and trust that I wouldn't let anything untoward happen to him. He would prance along with his head up, as if he owned the world. He was around seventeen when he died, having spent almost his entire life without seeing the world. However, he changed the way that I will see the world, forever.

These are only two of the lives that are making me a better animal. These are only two of my honoured teachers. These are only two of the hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions) of abandoned animals.

To give a living, breathing, feeling being as a gift is, thankfully and in actuality, beyond reason. Anyone who would even think of giving a living, breathing, feeling being as a gift, is in immediate need of the care of a psychiatrist, an ethicist and someone of the ilk of St. Francis of Assisi, Mahatma Ghandi, Albert Schweitzer and/or Mother Theresa.

Anyone who would abandon a domestic animal for any reason would abandon anyone for some reason. I know. I live with eleven animals who have been abandoned by some one. By the way, some of these abandoned animals are human.

Barry with Duque, General Jackson and Barney