Animals, until you have kids of your own, animals are your kids.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
We consider all our animals to be our kids.
My wife and my three kids and my grandchildren are my life, but my horses and my dogs are everything else.
Humans are the only animals that have children on purpose with the exception of guppies, who like to eat theirs.
If you look at little kids and wild animals, these are two groups of things that whenever I'm with them forces me to be in the moment.
Animals are sentient, intelligent, perceptive, funny and entertaining. We owe them a duty of care as we do to children.
My animals are a really important part of my life.
Kids leave us and go off on their own lives. Family members tell us what they think of us. Animals can't do that. They really are blank canvases, and we can project anything we want onto them. So the relationship is very pure and simple.
The only animals that we test on are the two of us and our kids.
I feel it in my bones that if I had a kid, I would not either continue to write or have written the book I have done. So it's just me and the dog. I've always gotten along better with animals than I have with children, anyway.
My children are my whole life.