Now, at the time of writing this column the cat is still not walking and there are some doubts that he will ever be running around again. This cat is a housecat, and was wearing a collar to show that it belonged to somebody. For these things  to still happen in this day and age is terrible. It is 2009, and we pretend to be a part of an educated country, but still there are families where the children can walk around with guns. Who is next? Your dog? Your cat? Maybe your child because he or she may do something that the person with the gun does not like!

For caring animal lovers, the path is clear. Many mammals are not as different from human beings as some would like us to believe. This is one of the reasons why we cannot do just anything with animals. Animals are worthy of our respect. It is NOT true that there is such a big difference between animals and humans. Recently, researchers discovered that humans have fewer genes than they thought at first . . . only two times more than a little fruit fly . . . and that our genes look a lot like the genes of other mammals. For example, 99 percent of chimpanzee genes are identical to ours.

So, here's a message to the culprits out there who think animals are nothing but lowly creatures. Stop walking with your head in the clouds, thinking you are so much better than anything else. Return to earth and mingle with all the animals . . . all God's creatures.  You'll find life is better down here. But we animal lovers already know that!