I hope to make people realize how totally helpless animals are, how dependent on us, trusting as a child must that we will be kind and take care of their needs... [They] are an obligation put on us, a responsibility we have no right to neglect, nor to violate by cruelty.

Cats are connoisseurs of comfort

I went back to my conversation with Siegfried that morning; we had just about decided that the man with a lot of animals couldn't be expected to feel affection for individuals among them. But those buildings back there were full of John Skipton's animals - he must have hundreds. Yet what made him trail down that hillside every day in all weathers? Why had he filled the last years of those two old horses with peace and beauty? Why had he given them a final ease and comfort which he had withheld from himself? It could only be love.

If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.

I could do terrible things to people who dump unwanted animals by the roadside.

Cats always know whether people like or dislike them. They do not always care enough to do anything about it.