Category Archives: Pure Love

Excerpts from unpublished book- “Pure Love: The Bond Between Animals and the People Who Love Them” by Marcia Hutchinson

Roxie’s adoption story- Animal Rescue Site/Petfinder.org

I’m passionate about adopting/rescuing dogs.  There are so many great dogs languishing in shelters who would make great companions.  I adopted Roxie over 7 years ago.  I found her in a foster home in Framingham, MA where she was awaiting a forever home. She had been surrendered with her mother and sister from a family…

Pure Love: Loving Our Companion Animals- Part 4

Two dogs in a shelter awaiting adoption

Are We Worthy of Our Animals? The Thorny Ethical Issues of Pet Ownership Although we humans need to have animals in our lives, there are some thorny ethical questions that come up around keeping companion animals, or pets, as they used to be called. They are ambassadors from the world of nature, here to remind…

Pure Love- Loving Our Companion Animals- Part 3

a woman holding her dog close

The Blessing of Touch Touch is another quality that characterizes most of our relationships with the companion animals in our lives. Read Part 1 and Part 2 We live in a very low-touch society. Touch is generally permitted to us in very few of our relationships under very circumscribed conditions– with small children, with our…

Pure Love- Loving our Companion Animals- Part 2

woman and dog sleeping together

See Part 1 Unconditional Love and Acceptance We routinely throw these words around when talking about a relationship with an animal. But what do they really mean? They mean that we are loved and accepted, no matter what. There are no conditions placed on the love. It’s not conditional on whether you’ve been well behaved,…

Pure Love- Loving Our Companion Animals-Part 1

young girl holding golden retriever puppy

Human beings have kept companion animals for thousands of years. They are the animals taken out of the wild–either recently or long ago– that we invite into our homes, our families, our lives. They can be dogs, cats, birds, pigs, rabbits, small mammals, reptiles, or fish. We do not join our lives for reasons of…