We were best friends in high school, she with her family on a farm up the hill where apple orchards grew, and one dog and two cats ran free and I on a smaller farm down the road with my family and our cats and dogs, too. She and I had that in standard as well as some other activities, concerns, wishes, and goals.
I moved to California and didn’t see her for about ten years, though we wrote at least twice a month. When I finally git back home, and to the new town she had moved to, I made it a point to find her and spend some time in her new digs. Driving down, I wondered if she had changed her goals, changed her personality, her lifestyle, herself. When she came to the door she answered all my questions without a word: she had not changed a single bit and had become a nurse (like her mother), was still smart, funny, generally happy. All was as it was when we were young except for one thing. She now had 22 cats! What a magical and spiritual moving experience to be in an apartment with the sound and movement and appearance of purring and stretching and walking atop couches and chairs and counters. What a trip having these mystical beings all around you, all over you, all at one moment, then the next staring at you, calling to you. Ah. Food. Pet food must have been delivered by speciality trucks, I imagined. And feeding time, doling out can after can and pouring bag after bag of pet food must take hours, like painting the Golden Gate Bridge–when you finish from one end to the other it is time to start back at the first end again. And the cost of feeding them all must be outrageous, I thought.
But no, actually, she told me. The pet food was by bulk purchase, was nutritionally apt, and took only twenty or so minutes to put out on special counters and in select areas of the dining room. She was true to her word in every respect. I watched her prepare and feed her beloveds, who were all sleek, clear-eyed, and healthy animals. She hadn’t changed at all. She still cared for living things in a most worshipful way. And I know she is not alone, for you’re reading this, you’re here to find pet food information and product, aren’t you? Well, welcome to animal restarting. I will be your hostess and seat you. How many will that be for dinner, then?
