Actually, another reason shelters are so full is many people don’t seem to understand the value of spaying and neutering – also touched on in Marley & Me during one of its funniest sequences – but that’s a whole other box of puppies. Maybe, someday, a copy of Marley & Me on DVD will be standard issue when taking a new pet home. It wouldn’t be a bad idea.
While watching the movie, I found myself ruminating on a sad truth. Compared to humans, dogs (and cats and horses and hamsters and …) live very short lives. When I was young, I had a dog named Princess. Those years were filled with good times that seemed like they would never end. Most of my memories from that time involve Princess. Looking back though, she was with me for such a short time and, the older I get, the shorter it seems.
Yet, to Princess, those years were everything. We also get a strong sense of this with Marley. He lived a long and happy and fulfilling life with the Grogan family and he changed their lives immeasurably. But, they will go on to experience much more life and most likely many more dogs while Marley becomes just a fond memory.
After things settled down, the Grogans did not try to solve their problems by getting rid of Marley and we can all be thankful for that, especially the Grogans.
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