Animals, my dog and heat

Essentially, I love dogs and hate heat. I like most animals but dogs and horses are my favourites. My dog is a golden cocker spaniel and she's almost five years old; I've had her since she was nine weeks old. I love her, and here I'm not using the word love in a flippant way, such as when we say I love fruit. No, when I say I love her, that is exactly what I mean.

I don't however, do that ridiculous thing some people do with their pets, in that they treat them like humans and dress them up. Nor do I allow Duffy (good name?) to sleep on my bed. With animals and dogs in particular, you can't do whatever you like and think they will adapt easily. It's necessary to lay down the ground rules early and stick to them so that the the pet feels safe and secure.

It's my belief that the way in which a society treats its animals is a reliable measure as to how compassionate that society is. If I were the one to decide I would ban halal and kosher meat.  For this meat  to qualify as halal for Muslim people or kosher, for Jewish people, it is undeniable that the animals are killed inhumanely. I just find it hard to understand what kind of a God could want this. Why would a good God want the animals that, according to religion, he had created, to be killed in such a cruel way? No deity that I know of, that's for sure. I should perhaps confess (to use a suitably religious word) that I am an atheist. Truth to tell, when I say or write that confession of atheism, I always feel a little anxious, just in case I've got it wrong...

And now to heat. Everyone says, when it's warm and sunny, 'Isn't it lovely today?' Everyone agrees.'Oh yes, it is. I hope it carries on.' What I always wonder is, do they actually mean what they say? I agree myself when it's sunny and hot and someone says that it's lovely. I agree because it would be odd and possibly rude too, to say you don't like it. Imagine. 'No I don't think it is lovely. I prefer biting winds, rain and cold.Snow preferably.' That would be my honest answer. Heat, especially humidity, makes me feel irritable, lethargic and generally unhappy. I like the sun, but I like it when it makes the frost on the grass and the pavements glisten.I like the sun in a clear blue sky when the temperature is below freezing. There must be more people who prefer the cold to the heat. Mustn't there?