
There is nothing more human than to love a dog and nothing more divine than for God to love humanity. Empathy is both innate and learned, a variable talent to be diligently built on and a skill to be lovingly cultivated. Empathy is the glue that holds human society together (sometimes clumsily referred to as “love”), but it isn’t unique to humans, or even primates for that matter. Anyone with warm-blooded pets can attest to that (maybe not as perceivably so in reptiles, fish, and whatnot). Now, all of you cat people out there are probably annoyed that I’ve singled out dogs as being essential companions to the nature of humanity. But I would encourage you to be patient and maybe just stick with me on this. It’ll take less time to explain than lint-rollering the cat hair off your couch.