The Pleasures of Loving Animals

Carlos Fraguela

HAVANA TIMES — I am grateful to life for giving me the opportunity to be reborn in the beauty of nature, humanity, plants and – most especially – animals.

Few of those who know me recall the keen interest in veterinary sciences I once had. As a child, I would dream of curing animals when they got sick. I was such a bad student that my grade average wasn’t enough to pursue this dream.

That setback, however, never distanced me from the creatures around me, particularly wild ones.

I loved lizards and frogs and Cuban snakes would hypnotize me, even though I was often surrounded by people who were afraid of nearly all of these animals.

Today, I wonder what it was that always drove me to them. Perhaps it’s because I always regarded them as equals, or perhaps because I had already begun to suspect how important they would be for me forever.

I am always surrounded by animals. Animals never tire of saving my life. I feel I have a special bond with each one, like the ones we have with relatives. Every bond to a living being brings us in contact with life and distances us from death – this is how I see it.

A friend gave me a number of videos dealing with animals and the amazing things they do. It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in my life: beings that experience feelings and behave in much the same way we do.

Seeing this makes me think that it is likely many of the things I see animals do in these documentaries that thrill me were taught us by animals long ago.

In exchange for all things learned, humanity has belittled animals and, in most cases, deprived them of their rights as inhabitants of the planet.

In a world as messed up as ours, any kind of peaceful relationship with these lovely neighbors is like a breath of fresh air in the midst of the prevailing pollution, a place one can get away from hatred.