When have you seen one animal choosing to help another?

Animals Helping Animals

We were walking with Leaf next to the Mississippi River and Allen threw the ball for him to chase. It went into the water a little too deep. Leaf watched as a large fish jumped out of the water near where his ball had landed.

Being a rescued dog Leaf had to learn how to take care of himself. He was not about to swim into the river where there may be creatures underneath trying to nibble at his feet or worse. So he stared at the ball and barked.

Then he moved toward the ball. He backed away. He barked some more. Because he knew how to swim and had often gone after his precious ball, he seemed frustrated at not being able to retrieve it this time.

As we watched, Allen was about to take his shoes off and wade out to get Leaf's ball. Just then a family walked by with its dog who also had short legs. Their dog looked at the situation, jumped into the water, swam, got the ball, brought it back to shore, and dropped it at Leaf's paws.

A happy Leaf grabbed his favorite ball and wagged his tail with gusto. We thanked the dog whose name was Lizzy.

It was nice to experience this. One dog made a choice to help another dog. And Allen was grateful that Leaf's hero had kept him from having to get his feet wet.

There is a wonderful book by Allen M. Schoen, D.V.M., M.S., KINDRED SPIRITS (Broadway Books, 2001). Dr. Schoen wrote about how his dog Megan took care of an injured one-week old goat by licking the animal and lying by her side, breathing against the goat's chest.

Dr. Schoen had to hurry away to save the life of a wounded kitten and wondered if it would be all right to leave the goat in Megan's care. Megan looked into the vet's eyes and seemed to assure him that she'd take care of the kid while he was gone.

He writes, "Megan had intuited and understood my role in life and now she had adopted that responsibility for herself. She was becoming a healer -- just as much as I was. Although I had been very close to many animals before, this connection moved beyond any I had ever made. In a moment's time, my sense of the human-animal bond had changed forever."

Over the years we have received thousands of stories from around the world about all kinds of animals helping, healing, and working with other animals in ways that sometimes are amazing. And we have many personal experiences with our beloved pets assisting each other over the years.

When have you seen one animal choosing to help another?

We welcome you to answer this question and the "Something to Think About" question at our blogs and forums, so everyone can see your comments.

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DON'T MISS!!!
The launch for our new book, HORSES WITH A MISSION is on Saturday, October 10th, 2:00 p.m. at Borders Books & Music in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Hope to see you there!

Go to www.horseswithamission.com to read excerpts of the book, see video clips of stories, and join in the fun of launching this exciting new book.


Allen and Linda Anderson
Angel Animals Network
www.angelanimals.net