#animals

We were restless for ages...After a while I heard an owl hooting and calmed myself by thinking of it flying over the dark fields – and then I remembered it would be pouncing on mice. I love owls, but I wish God had made them vegetarian. ↗

— Dodie Smith

#humor #age

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help. ↗

— Albert Schweitzer

#ethical #fellow #fellow men #help #him

People's hearts are like wild animals. They attach their selves to those that love and train them. ↗

— Ali ibn Abi Talib

#hearts #like #love #people #selves

Elephants, it turns out, are surprisingly stealthy. As the sunlight fades, other species declare their presence. Throngs of zebras and wildebeests thunder by in the distance, trailing dust clouds. Cape buffalo snort and raise their horns and position themselves in front of their young. Giraffes stare over treetops, their huge brown eyes blinking, then lope away in seeming slow motion. But no elephants. ↗

— Thomas French

#elephants #stealth #life

Taggle, meanwhile, made himself popular, killing rats and bringing a rabbit into camp every evening, preening in the praise - silently, thank god, though at night, he recounted choice bits to Kate: "Rye Baro says I am a princeling; he split the leg bone for me so that I could eat the marrow. They love me. And I'm sure they'll keep you, too." Mira, she thought, and treasured it each time she heard it, They must keep me. Family. ↗

— Erin Bow

#belonging #boasting #hope #longing #talking-animals

Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in. ↗

— Mark Twain

#dogs #heaven #dog

Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer. ↗

— Dean Koontz

#dogs #dog

You think those dogs will not be in heaven! I tell you they will be there long before any of us. ↗

— Robert Louis Stevenson

#dogs #dog

Whoever said you can't buy Happiness forgot little puppies. ↗

— Gene Hill

#dogs #dog

Coyotes move within a landscape of attentiveness. I have seen their eyes in the creosote bushes and among mesquite trees. They have watched me. And all the times that I saw no eyes, that I kept walking and never knew, there were still coyotes. When I have seen them trot away, when I have stepped from the floorboard of my truck, leaned on the door, and watched them as they watched me over their shoulders, I have been aware for that moment of how much more there is. Of how I have only seen only an instant of a broad and rich life. ↗

— Craig Childs

#coyote #nature #life