Puppy Watch

I've had maternal instincts ever since I hit puberty, for me it's a normal occurrence, feeling suddenly broody and protective over something small with big eyes. So when my brother brought a 7 week old German shepherd puppy home, it was a present for his fiancée, they're getting married in only a few more weeks, it was totally natural for me to cuddle the little chap for hours. Even though it's not even my dog, I reluctantly gave the ball of fluff to his owner, my brother's fiancée and couldn't help the stab of jealousy. Now it's a continuous puppy watch, catching him up when he's about to urinate and calling him by his name to try and imprint it on him. It's better than TV and I'm getting my fair share of cuddles with the little mite, after all I'm more like a soft dogs bed than a human. With my soft flat stomach and generous sized chest, you couldn't get more comfortable, with portable chew toys (i.e, my fingers and palm) included in the package. I told my fiancé who at the moment is out of the country for his job and scared him half to death, he's panicking this is a sign of the approaching pregnancy, which of course it's not. But that got me thinking about how humans instinctively want to protect babies, not just human babies, but kittens, puppies, in fact anything with big eyes and soft skin.

What is it that makes humanity turn into illogical creatures when big eyes and soft skin appear in view? Is it natures way of making us care and cherish children? Yet, if you watch parents these days they seem not to cherish their children. They've become another commodity in our throw away society, something to dress up in GAP and brag about to other parents. They're considered a curse to young people, the dreaded unwanted pregnancy and the curse of the baby. As if they were some nuclear infected mutation that must be cured, like cancer or something.

Having said that it seems it doesn't apply to animals. the British are known for loving their animals more than children, it's a national joke, although it's become an international phenomenon. Americans too love their pets, so do the Spanish and most of Northern Europe, in fact it seems a symptom of a powerful and what we might consider a civilised society to love their animals so much we spend thousand and thousands on pet products. Poorer countries consider animals as the commodity and their children as precious, what a turn around!

Humanity is a complicated and techni-colour animal, nothing in life is black and white, so perhaps I'm judging it too harshly. It certainly is a peculiar phenomenon that seems to be in the public eye, even superstars take more care of the animals than their children. Troubled singers with their custody battles, seem to be more concerned about SPCA than whether they're caught by their ex's private detectives doing something unbecoming of a parent or whether Social Services wants to take their children away. I can only suppose that humanity is too complicated to understand fully, and I'm far to stupid to even get the gist of it all. This is all from me, till I have another light bulb moment.