The first articles I wrote were titled “Animal Stories”. It was necessary to be clear. In the nineties, no media approached the animal world from an emotional point of view and saw them as sentient beings.
You should consider that the Spanish Civil Code did not include this concept until 25 years later. Today we know that if a family member dies or is out of the house for a long time, the dog or cat living in them will feel it so intensely that they may even die of grief. Back then, it was science fiction.
Therefore, two very unique things happened when the first stories were published. On the one hand, that all the animals that appear in them are immediately adopted. If the shelter they lived in opened at ten o’clock in the morning, five or six people who wanted to adopt them had newspapers at the door at that time. Also, as soon as the story unfolded, people in many cafes and bars read them and were so impressed by each one that it was not uncommon to see them cry while doing so. The credit belonged to the animals, not mine. These articles showed the close relationship that existed between them.
On the other hand, as always, this brought me all kinds of criticism and more than one teasing. There was no shortage of people who would classify me as a very emotional man or “soft”, fashioned at the time by the singer “El Fari”.
Fortunately, networks today collect stories of animals in need, and no one thinks to insult the person who posted them. In this, society has developed. Goodness. All that remains is to get society to accept animal protection as a right, not a charity.