To Change The World

So today I went to Petland. This was just because a friend of mine is looking to adopt a dog, I had no intentions of looking for myself. And I classify myself as really loving big dogs - labs, German Shepherds, etc.. I like little dogs, but I'm more of a big-dog kind of person. Then my friend and I walk past the cage of this silly little Shitzu, who's just ecstatic that there are people out there and bouncing up against the glass and wagging her little tail, and I asked if I could play with her.

I'm telling you, DON'T GO INTO PETLAND IF YOU HAVE A SOFT HEART. Walking past all those cages, with those animals whose each life is precious and seeing them just being given a number of worth and put up for sale, really can break your heart. And especially don't ask to play with the puppies. I played with this little Shitzu girl puppy for almost an hour and really had a hard time admitting that it is the wrong time for a puppy and that I need to wait. A lot of people are against Petland. I am one of them. But the dogs in their puppy mills - they can't help where they were born, or how they came into the world. And so they deserve homes just as much as other puppies.

Whenever I go into these places, I have a hard time figuring out what I, as an individual, can do to change the world so that these kind of places don't exist, and these animals aren't sold this way. But I have a hard time answering my question. As a result of the generation we've grown up in, we experience on a daily basis hurt, pain, violence - whether it's on the news, in our video games, on our TV shows, or during our movies. We've become so accustomed to suffering and things that should not be allowed in any society that a lot of the time, it is hard for us to step outside of our comfort zone and decide that something must be done.

As for Petland, I don't know yet what I can do to try to make the world a little better for each puppy or kitten or animal that is bred and has to potentially be forced to live in a cage too small for too long, with not enough love. And I haven't come up with a solution, but I came up with an answer to part of it.

What can I do to change the world, simply by myself, every day? I can't save all the animals. I can't save all the people. I can't single-handedly save the planet. As an individual, the best thing we can all possibly do, is to love as hard as we can, love the most that we can, and touch the lives of all we can, while we can.