Writer's Block and Loving Animals

I wonder if all writers don't occasionally face writer's block.  I know I certainly do.  After nearly three years of weekly posting to this blog, I sometimes stare at a piece of paper and feel I have nothing to write.  Cuba and protecting its animals offers many opportunities upon which to expound, but sometimes in the midst of such richness I come up blank.

So it was last week when, after long consideration, I decided to write about "politically correct" language and how it even affects animal rightists.  I touched on scientists, the women's liberation movement, and race relations before getting to the language strictures propounded by animal rightists.  In particular I argued for thinking of my dogs and cats as little people—as if they were my children.  To me, the term, "pet," is an honorific denoting love and respect—much more so than the PC term, "companion animal."

I was glad to overcome my writer's block with this topic when I received a comment from my good Cuban friend, Maylin.  Maylin is a well-educated Cuban woman who, among other accomplishments, is a member of the Board of Directors of Aniplant.  She lives in the Havana suburbs.  She speaks Spanish and English fluently and is an excellent sequential interpreter.

Maylin's skill was the reason Nora suggested her as an interpreter for my keynote address last March at Aniplant's 25th anniversary celebration.  I can handle a short speech in Spanish well enough to avoid driving the audience out of the room, but I certainly wanted to do better than that for my talk at the anniversary.  Enter Maylin, who sat next to me at the head table, shared a microphone, and rendered my English words into correct, fluid Spanish.  She has also many times translated correspondence to help Nora, who does not speak English.

My blog on PC language had stimulated Maylin to tell me a story from her own past.  She began with her agreement that calling her pets "chicos" was a term of love and respect—much like the feelings she has for her son.  She went on to tell of her encounter with some young English speaking girls who clearly didn't respect animals.

But here it is in her words:

 

            DEAR LES:

 

            I have always referred to my dogs as "my chicos" which is something like my kids—not exactly             but you know, more or less.  People immediately ask me with a hint of sorrow, "Oh, you don't           have kids." That makes me sooo angry!!!  And I answer back clearly:  I have a son, a beloved          one...Meaning one human son, but I also have four legged kids, or chicos, they are MY DOGS!

 

            I have an anecdote I always remember.  One cloudy day I was on one of my neighborhood             errands injecting Ivomec into some poor dogs with mange that I had been treating and some             young girls, very nicely dressed, were staring at me as if I was an Extra Terrestrial. One of them     asked me why I did that, and I explained briefly.  Then the other, the fanciest one, spoke to her       friend IN ENGLISH thinking I was not able to understand, saying "poor thing, she could be crazy    because she certainly is old"

 

            It happens that they were English students at the University and thought themselves the real             queens of England.  Then I looked in the eyes of the one who spoke and said in perfect English:            It is a pity how ashamed of you dear William Shakespeare would be if...he had the opportunity to    hear your words and know your thoughts!  Certainly you should read him more to learn what the   word HUMANITY means.  If you prefer a more modern writer, I suggest another William, but this            time it is William Somerset Maugham because critics say that his novels and short stories are the           very soul of human kindness.

 

            I turned my back on them, and resumed my dog task.  I think they were speechless.

 

            Well, dear friend thanks always for your blogs.  Give my love to Charlene.

 

            MAYLIN