I Am My Own Pet

Walking in the forest with my 7-month dog, Lucy. The rain has let up for a spell. Blue sky cuts through the mist and big dark cloud. I’m thinking about the huge bags of kibble I feed Lucy and the microbe environment  created in her stomach and intestines, and I think how little the company that makes that food knows, how little I know, or vets know, about what the food we give our dogs does to them. About what they really need to be healthy. And then it comes to me. I am my own pet. I feed myself, groom myself, and take myself out for exercise. I really don’t know how my digestive systems works, not in the tiny exchanges of energy, minerals, the chemical reactions of amino acids. I have no idea what kind of microbe biome I'm creating in my guts or how painkillers, antihistamines, drink, sleep and stress affect it. We are loved for a while, and we love. We take our best guess, and throw our fate out there to the same forces that govern our pets.