Anne Ferguson

“It is a foolish man who thinks stories do not matter—when in the end, they may be all that matter and all the forever we’ll ever know.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West with Giraffes

“People look at you peculiar if you talk about the feeling you got for animals, saying animals have no souls, no sense of good or bad, no value up next to humans," he said. "I don't know about that. Sometimes I think animals are the ones who should be saying such things about us." He shook his head. "Animals can tear your heart out. They can maim you. They can kill you dead on instinct alone and saunter into the next minute like it was nothing. But at least you know the ground rules with animals. You can count the cost of breaking the rules. You never know with people. Even the good can hurt you bad, and the bad, well, they're going to hurt you but good." He dropped his arm from the window to rub his gnarled hand. "It's why I keep choosing animals. Even if it kills me. One day, it probably will.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West with Giraffes

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened. —Anatole France, Nobel Laureate, 1921”
― Lynda Rutledge, West with Giraffes

“It’s a strange thing how you can spend years with some folks and never know them, yet, with others, you only need a handful of days to know them far beyond years.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West with Giraffes