12 Days of Yule ~ Day 6

6th Day of Yule – Remembering the Noble Virtue of Fidelity
December 25th

"We must remain loyal to who and what we are. Those around us need to have the ability to take us at our word, and our word needs to be our bond. Our handshake needs to seal the deal. The devotion to our deeds has to be of the utmost importance."

I have four dogs and three parrots, so it will come as no surprise to you when I discuss loyalty in regards to pets. Pets have a large sense of loyalty to their humans which may be more than human-to-human loyalty. There are some famous pets which include Greyfriar's Bobby who attended his master's grave for fourteen years; Hachiko, who returned to the place he used to meet his master every day for nine years after his death; and Foxie, the spaniel belonging to Charles Gough, who stayed by her dead master's side for three months on Helvellyn in the Lake District in 1805. The fact that Gough's body was alledgedly eaten by his dog was ignored in subsequent romantic accounts of the story.

In the Mahabharata, the righteous King Yudhisthira, at the end of his life, appeared at the gates of Heaven. He had previously lost his brothers and his wife to death, and when he appeared at the gates his only remaining companion was a stray dog he had picked up along the way. The God Indra is prepared to admit him to Heaven, but refused to admit the dog. Yudhisthira refused to abandon the dog, and prepares to turn away from the gates of Heaven. Then the dog is revealed to be the manifestation of Dharma, the God of Righteousness and Justice, and who turned out to be his deified self. Yudhisthira enters Heaven in the company of his dog, the God of Righteousness. Yudhisthira is known by the epithet Dharmaputra, the Lord of Righteous Duty.

In speaking of pets and the effects they have on our lives, one can only ascertain that there is a sense of loyalty on the part of the human as well. I myself have a sense of loyalty to my pets and thus they have come to depend on me for their food (breakfast at 8:00 a.m. sharp please), love, attention, play, and just hanging out. There is no doubt about the bond between me and my pets and the loyalty one feels for the other.

Ah, if only it were as simple as a pat on the head for the rest of us . . .