West With Giraffes

by Lynda Rutledge

Few true friends have I known and two were giraffes . . . —Woodrow Wilson Nickel

12/10/2023

whenever I locked eyes with an animal I felt something more soulful than I ever felt from the humans I knew, and what I saw in that sprawled giraffe’s eye made me ache to the bone.

12/10/2023

Other people say grace. Me, I say thanks to what I’m eating. Its life for mine.”

“Life is life no matter who or what is living it, boy—a thing to respect,” he said. “You don’t get that, then you’re just a waste of skin.”

12/16/2023

I see all the wonders of the world, waiting out there to be seen,” she said,

Animals can tear your heart out. They can maim you. They can kill you dead on instinct alone and saunter into the next minute like it was nothing. But at least you know the ground rules with animals. You can count the cost of breaking the rules. You never know with people. Even the good can hurt you bad, and the bad, well, they’re going to hurt you but good.”