Perhaps I’m wrong but I think if you ask most people in the US about their childhood pet(s) they’ll have a lot to tell you. Even though there are a few people here and there who don’t like animals, you often hear people describe their dogs, cats, horses, bunnies, and more as “part of the family.” We invest arguably ridiculous amounts of money into their health and keeping them alive and when they die, we cry at our loss (which is in and of itself a strange concept in Senegal where emotions are to be kept in check and not publicly displayed.
There are the pets large and small that put up with children grabbing onto them, playing with their ears, paws, and tails, the pets who we would swear understood every word we said to them; the pets who ate more human food than pet food, the pets who fell asleep beside our head every night for 12 years, the pet that shared its incredible physical strength galloping across a field (clearly those are my pet memories). There are feral cats and stray dogs that I pass on my way to school but not enough to make me think about it and I knew that most of our host families do not have pets. I didn’t realize how foreign of a concept having a pet was until talking with Korka.
She was telling me the story of an American friend she had met online who came to visit Senegal. The girl was staying at a hotel but it was getting expensive. In the spirit of hospitality that Senegal is famous for, Korka’s family invited the girl to stay with them. What the girl didn’t tell them was that she had picked up a stray cat while here and was bringing it with her. Apparently the cat created quite the ruckus in the house and was not the most popular inhabitant. I don’t know exactly how to describe the expression of surprise and confusion on Korka’s face when I told her about our animal cruelty laws (then further explaining that though American culture doesn’t approve of beating animals whipping horses for example does happen and isn’t necessarily perceived as bad).
One of the things that struck me most about our discussion about animals was that just prior we had talked about “terranga.” She recounted how she didn’t believe her father when he first told her that you can’t just knock on somebody’s door in the US, not knowing them, and expect to be welcomed in and given food and shelter like could happen here. Only when her brother, who currently lives in Boston, confirmed this did she believe it. Why is it that we give animals such a high role in our lives, elevating them to the status of family, some people to such an extreme level as leaving them money but as a society we are unwilling to literally open our door to somebody from away who needs food and a place to stay because they are in a foreign place? I love the animals in my life and childhood as much as the next American and would never consider treating them as unimportant, but how can we justify not treating other people, other humans as part of our family when we share so much more in common with them?
Thththat’s all folks!
p.s. While on the subject of animals…I followed some cows on my way to school Monday morning for part of the way. They were just meandering. I’m pretty sure no person was with them but they were just walking down the street and turned very nicely as a group down a side street.
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