A Guide to Love in Any Species
Girl meets boy; monkey meets dove—these pairings prove human relationships and animal relationships aren't so different after all.
By Leigh Newman
Photo: Bob Pennell/Mail Tribune
5 of 9
The Golden Retriever and the Koi
The Animal Version
A golden retriever waits by a shimmering pond, his face bent down to the glossy surface, waiting for a large multi-colored koi to rise up and nibble his nose.
The Human Version
He's in Montana. She's in Tokyo. They meet every other month in San Francisco and talk daily (for him, nightly for her) over Skype. He wears Levi's. She wears jazzy heels and flashy, fluttery dresses. They are madly, passionately in love and nibble each other's ears in public—when they see each other.
Other Less Obvious Human Versions:
He's been in love with her for years, but she has a boyfriend. She's been in love with him too, but when she breaks up with her boyfriend, he has a girlfriend. And so on...the time and circumstances never aligning, leaving them in separate emotional countries, wondering if longing and love are the same thing after all.
Published 08/02/2011
