I have never lived in bear country, but my parents do. My dad thinks a black bear got one of his dogs a few years back. We deal with the deer and such in these parts, but thankfully, there are no major predators here (but some greenies are trying to get wolves introduced for us to deal with!).
“I couldn’t eat Ben no matter how hungry I got.”
I understand, that’s why my dad told me to never name anything that wasn’t a pet. Ironically, I still name my favorites in the group. :-)
My wife and I went nuts for a while being a foster home for guinea pigs. We love the little critters, and so we wanted to try to help. We did help some. We took care of them until they were adopted.
But the truth is, the world is pretty mean, and you just can't help them all. They are at our mercy--I pity them for that. To many, they are mere commodities. To me, they are sentient beings. And some of them I consider my friends. Not just individuals--whole species. But that's just me.