People love their pets. It's been true since the stone ages, maybe longer. Dogs and cats – like horses – have made important contributions to the rise of human civilization.
Many of those roles have been diminished with the invention of increasingly better mouse traps and the ability of machines to do things like herd livestock and keep houses secure.
Mechanical innovations, however clever they may be, have never been able to rise to the occasion and provide something dogs, cats and other animals provide: companionship. Floating around on the Internet is the observation that no matter how irritated your fellow human beings are with you, there's a dog being walked that will be straining against its leash so it can come across the street and greet you.
It's been fitting, therefore, that in recent years pets have figured prominently in how public spaces are used.
It's been good to see the rise of small stations where pet waste can be disposed of, but even more telling about the human relationship with pets has been the recent rise of dog parks. At present, there's one in operation in Harford County near the Equestrian Center in Bel Air. A second one on the grounds of the Harford County Humane Society operation in Fallston is closed during the construction of a new animal shelter, when a new park is expected to open.
Last week, the Bel Air Board of Town Commissioners approved a plan to dedicate a space in Rockfield Park on the town's eastern edge for a pet memorial tree grove.
The commissioners made it clear the grove in the park will not be a place where animals can be buried, or their ashes scattered. What will be permitted, however, is the planting of approved trees in honor of pets, with small memorial markers affixed to the trees by the town.
The town will plant the trees and maintain the grove for a nominal fee collected from anyone who requests and pays for the tree and marker. The grove won't be restricted to remembering the pets of town residents; people who don't live in town can request and pay for a tree to be planted in their pet's memory.
The resolution passed by the commissioners on the pet memorial grove fittingly reads: "Rockfield Park is unique for such a commemoration area given its prolific use for walking pets and its access to residential neighborhoods."
In the grand scheme of things, it's hardly an action that will change the world. Then again, who's to say the soothing company of four-legged companions hasn't already had a positive effect on the world.