Gordon's 'Hachiko The Lovable Akita'

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“If having a soul means being able to feel love, loyalty, and gratitude, then most animals are better off than a lot of us humans.”-James Herriot. It may be difficult to believe but humans can learn more from animals than animals can learn from humans. Humans need to learn how to love, maintain loyalty, and demonstrate gratitude the same way animals do.

We as humans can learn to love unconditionally like animals. I had a dog named Gordon, every time I got home from school he was always bouncing off the walls in joy that I was finally home. Gordon always put a smile on my face, whether it was a good day or not. He treated me like no human ever would. Gordon’s actions show how animals love unconditionally. That is what made him so amazing.
One profound example of loyalty would be diabetic detection dogs. “The dogs alert the owners over three times more often during low blood sugar episodes than when blood sugar was normal.”(Marian Tucker). Humans may not be as sensitive to other humans as dogs are to their owners, because of this humans may not be able to detects problems like a loyal dogs can of their owner. Loyalty can also be seen in the story of a dog named Hachiko. In this story, “ Hachiko, the lovable Akita, whom every day for nine years until his death, sat in the same place, at the same time, waiting for his dear friend to come home not knowing he had died unexpectedly perished at work and would never return.” (Brad Smithfield). This shows loyalty because no human would never go day after day for nine years waiting for somebody to come back to
The Thoughtful Animal- Gratitude: Uniquely Human, offered a realistic example of animals showing gratitude. “They were standing dejected, water streaming down their shivering bodies when professor Hohler chanced to pass. Upon opening the door for the two chimps, Dr. James recounts, instead of scampering in with more ado, as many children would have done, each of them delayed entering the warm shelter long enough to throw its arms around his benefactor in a frenzy satisfaction.” (Goldman). This shows that the chimps were happy and showed gratitude by the way they acted before entering the house. Another example of an animal showing gratitude may be, “perhaps it seems like your adopted dog or cat pays special attention to you, perhaps in gratitude for his or her rescue?”(Bonnie and de Waal). I mean without you the animals probably would not have a home or would have been put down by the doctors. You were their rescuer and they cannot thank you