I’ve noticed something that I’m sure must be a common phenomenon: society and its many demands and unspoken (and spoken!) rules, as well as the violence inherent in these demands and rules, makes me feel very tired.

But my dear dogs don’t give a damn about these arbitrary standards and demands. They don’t care what my income/h-index/BMI/whatever are; they just want to be around me so they can receive cuddles and peanut butter. Perhaps this is why I find their company so liberating, compared to the company of most (but certainly not all!) humans.

Some passages from the literature along these lines:

“Dogs were the most commonly owned companion animals, and 92% of dog and cat guardians regarded their companion animals as family members. Over 80% of the dog and cat guardians specified companionship and unconditional love as benefits offered by their animals.” - Faver and Cavazos 2008 (link)

“Elsewhere, studies have reported the reciprocal unconditional love offered by pets…” - MacDonald and Barrett 2016 (link)

“There is also the very nonjudgemental nature of human–animal interactions (i.e., unconditional positive regard)… Thus, interacting with animals can provide an opportunity for emotional investment that is free of negative evaluation and not subject to feelings of rejection (i.e., unconditional positive regard). This factor of unconditional positive regard has often been proposed to be a key factor in the positive relationships that children have with their companion animals (Robin & ten Bensel, 1985).” - Fawcett and Gullone 2001 [(link)[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eleonora-Gullone/publication/247830678_Cute_and_Cuddly_and_a_Whole_Lot_More_A_Call_for_Empirical_Investigation_into_the_Therapeutic_Benefits_of_Human-Animal_Interaction_for_Children/links/0046353190fbf606e3000000/Cute-and-Cuddly-and-a-Whole-Lot-More-A-Call-for-Empirical-Investigation-into-the-Therapeutic-Benefits-of-Human-Animal-Interaction-for-Children.pdf]]

And that final study also begins with this quote, attributed to George Elio (1857): “Animals are such agreeable friends — they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.”