Mast, what you say is interesting. I don't know that the same is true for me, though. I still have a "Cody" shaped spot in my heart, and a "Shadow" shaped spot, and a "Emmy" shaped spot in my heart from animals I have had in my life. It's true that having no dog or no cat in my life would create enormous dog shaped and cat shaped holes, and the dogs and cats I have fill those spots. I just have had a few animals who did more than fill those holes. They were more to me than most humans have been.