Living Life

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened."   - Anatole France

I put down my book, The Meaning of Zen, and see the cat smiling into her fur as she delicately combs it with her rough pink tongue.  "Cat, I would lend you this book to study but it appears you have already read it."  She looks up and gives me her full gaze.  "Don't be ridiculous," she purrs, "I wrote it."   - Dilys Laing, "Miao" 

"I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul."   - Jean Cocteau

"If there were to be a universal sound depicting peace, I would surely vote for the purr."   - Barbara L. Diamond

"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals ... In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.  They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth."   - Henry Beston                                                                                   

"No symphony orchestra ever played music like a two-year-old girl laughing with a puppy."   - Bern Williams

"The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.   - Samuel Butler, Notebooks, 1912  

"No one can fully understand the meaning of love unless he's owned a dog.  A dog can show you more honest affection with a flick of his tail than a man can gather through a lifetime of handshakes.   - Gene Hill