The Key, I Suppose, Has

A Lot Of People, Quite Frankly, Think Intense Attachments To Animals Are Weird And Suspect, The Domain Of People Who Can't Quite Handle Attachments To Humans.

When You're Starving Or Wrapped Up In A Cycle Of Binge-ing-and-purging, Or Sexually Obsessed With (someone), It Is Very Hard To Think About Anything Else, Very Hard To See The Larger Picture Of Options That Is Your Life, Very Hard To Consider What Else You Might Need Or Want Or Fear Were You Not So Intently Focused On One Crushing Passion. I Sat In My Room Every Night, With Rare Exceptions, For Three And A Half Years.

Was He Smart Enough? Introspective Enough? Was It Just Enough To Love Him, Or Should I Attach Myself To Someone Who Seemed Farther Ahead Of Me, Someone Smarter And More Ambitious Than Me, Who'd Be Sure To Carry Me Along Into The Version Of Adulthood I Thought I Should Be Striving For?

Fall In Love With A Dog, And In Many Ways You Enter A New Orbit, A Universe That Features Not Just New Colors But New Rituals, New Rules, A New Way Of Experiencing Attachment.

I'm Still Prone To Periods Of Isolation, Still More Fearful Of The World Out There And More Averse To Pleasure And Risk Than I'd Like To Be; I Still Direct More Energy Toward Controlling And Minimizing Appetites Than Toward Indulging Them.