Differences

I saw something unusual today.

First I walked by a pug. It was wearing a bright green winter coat. Then I walked by a St. Bernard. It had its own fur coat on but it was wearing a sloppy but friendly sort of smile. My Person, always quick on the draw, said "How different dogs are from each other Finnegan." I stared at her, not wanting to encourage idle chatter. I was, in fact, hunting at the time.

But I started to think. Why would she expect dogs to be like each other? I am about as different as one can get, origins swirled in misty obscurity, unknown and unknowable. And then I thought "Eureka!" Clearly My Person was thinking about breeds of dogs and how alike they are to each other and how different they are from other dog breeds.

But does she think all dogs of a certain breed are alike? If you lined up 100 pugs, and they all looked very puggy and all wore green winter coats, they would still all be distinct individuals, with different histories and personalities. And so too with all animals. We are all different, wild and tame and domesticated and whatever category my stupid cat brothers fall into.

Some wild animals look more uniform than dogs, like squirrels for example. One gray squirrel in your yard looks much like any gray squirrel in my yard. But they are not the same squirrel - they have different pasts, different families, different personalities. And now and then one will even look alarmingly different. And as if my thoughts required an living example, a black squirrel appeared in the trees ahead of us.

People often prize things for looking like a type - a pug looking like a pug, plus or minus the embarrassing clothes. But sometimes something looks quite different from the expected and it has a special beauty because of this. Like the little black squirrel.

But two roses do not really look alike, and two branches each have their own curves and bends. It is worth paying attention and seeing things for what they are and perhaps you will end up surprised by what you see.