"Peace is a warm puppy."

Peace may be like a warm sleeping puppy but anyone who has tried to keep up with a puppy when it is awake likely knows a puppy can move fast and often leaves behind a trail of chewed shoes, papers, and anything else in its path. However, the phrase "Peace is a warm puppy," and the theme of this website is a paraphrase of a book first published in 1962 by the cartoonist Charles M. Schulz "Happiness is a Warm Puppy." (Happiness is a Warm Puppy: The Deluxe Edition, republished 2011) Happiness, peace, love and gratitude are all related emotions - joy also fits in the group. Being grateful for the active trail of destruction a puppy can leave in its path may seem odd unless you've also had to care for a puppy that is far to sick to get up, let alone chew your favorite pair of shoes.

"Peace is biodiversity," may also seem odd if watching a predator species chasing its prey. The circle of life makes us all one group, at different places in the food chain. Without flies, small amphibians and birds would have no dinner, and without the small animals, the larger predator animals would be hungry. Humans are at the top of the food chain but we depend on soil microbes to help grow crops and on bees to help fertilize the flowers of many types of agricultural crops.

Animals may seem different but we have many similarities even within the chemistry of microbes there are similarities with our cells. Puppies have to learn how to play fetch by having a human companion throw the ball - but they also may learn how to play fetch by themselves with the help of gravity and hillside (see embedded video below, "Self Entertaining Dog Plays Ball"). Animals are loving with each other and can also be companions with humans who treat them as equals.

• A dolphin likely having learned how to play catch with an adult human working at an aquarium park patiently helps a toddler human learn more about playing fetch, catch, and throw the ball again in this video: (Dolphin playing with kid!, 2014).

• Remarkable? yes, and here's an emu having a lot of fun playing fetch, but isn't as good at picking up the ball to return it. The emu's human companion joins the emu to retrieve and throw the ball again: (Pet Emu Playing Fetch, 2015). The toddler jumping with joy while playing with the patient dolphin looks remarkably similar to the emu jumping with joy when it reaches the ball that had been thrown by its human friend.

We can all be friends to the earth. Biodiversity refers to all the types of plant and animal life throughout the ecosystem and research has shown that when there is more variety of species there tends to be more health, fewer invasive species or infectious pathogens. So protecting the health of the many varied lifeforms with whom we share the planet is also helping protect us from disease and promoting health of our agricultural crops and farm animals. See "More Species Means Less Disease," NatureNews.

• Another awe-dorable animal video - a baby deer with her human, cat, and dog, rescue team: (Baby deer rescue and release, 2015).

Self Entertaining Dog Plays Ball:

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