Lessons in Love: What Animals, People, and Pride Month Teach Us
Welcome to June—Pride Month.
A time to honor the LGBTQ+ community: their struggles, their joy, their truth. A time to remember the Stonewall Uprising, and all the brave souls who stood up and said: I deserve to be here. I deserve to be seen. I deserve to be me.
But Pride isn’t just about a flag or a parade. It’s about acceptance—of others, of ourselves, of all the things we don’t yet understand.
It’s about learning to love deeply, curiously, and with intention.
And if I’ve learned anything in my life as a veterinarian, as a parent, and as a person—it’s that animals are often our first teachers in that kind of love.
The Turtle in the Road
Once, I was driving down a busy road and everything came to a standstill. Cars honking. People yelling. Confusion everywhere.
And in the middle of it all? A large snapping turtle.
She was trying to cross. Probably on her way to lay eggs, trying to do what her instincts told her to do long before we laid down pavement. But no one was helping. No one even knew how to help.
And you can’t just grab a snapping turtle—they’ll defend themselves with a snap strong enough to take your finger! But I had boots on. I gently nudged her along with my foot and a stick. Slowly, she found her way to the grass. To safety.
That turtle wasn’t trying to ruin anyone’s day. She was just trying to live.
Who (or What) Has Been Placed in Your Path?
Ever had a person or an animal cross your path and immediately feel: Ugh, this is messing with my day?
That’s your invitation.
It’s never random. When a pattern repeats, when the same kind of challenge shows up again and again—pay attention. The world isn’t punishing you. It’s teaching you. Offering you the chance to grow.
Sometimes the lesson feels good. Sometimes it feels awful. But that doesn’t make the situation bad—it just makes it uncomfortable. And discomfort is often the beginning of wisdom.
“It’s Not a Bad Dog. It’s a Dog That Had to Poop.”
Your dog poops in the house. You feel frustrated, disappointed, grossed out.
But is the dog bad?
No.
The situation is bad.
The feeling is bad.
But the dog? The dog just had to poop.
Instead of yelling, you change the routine. Maybe you get up an hour earlier. Maybe you shift the feeding schedule. You adjust.
And that’s acceptance. Not pretending things don’t upset you—but responding with understanding instead of punishment.
We Accept What We Understand
It amazes me that we’ll accept a three-legged cat with open arms—adorable, unique, “so brave!”
But a person in a wheelchair? That sometimes makes people look away.
We cheer for merle dogs with one blue eye and one brown—but judge humans with skin or clothes or pronouns we don’t understand.
Acceptance starts when we lean into curiosity instead of fear. Why is my cat scratching the couch? Maybe that’s just normal feline behavior—and I can solve it with a scratching post instead of shouting.
Why is this person celebrating something I don’t know about?
Google it. Ask. Learn.
Because different isn’t wrong.
Different is just… different.
Loving My Daughter, Learning from Her
I’m the proud parent of a lesbian daughter. I’ve watched her wrestle with self-acceptance—not because there’s something wrong with her, but because she’s aware that others think there might be.
That is the pain of being different in a world that hasn’t learned to love difference yet.
But that pain has also been a teacher.
To her. To me.
To anyone willing to pay attention.
She’s strong. She’s wise. She’s funny.
She’s everything I hoped I’d raise her to be.
And she’s teaching me every day that loving yourself is not a given—it’s a journey. One we all deserve support on.
Pride Is for All of Us
Pride is about LGBTQ+ people, yes. But it’s also about all of us learning to walk through the world with a little more curiosity. A little more compassion. A little more willingness to adjust our thinking when someone crosses our path who we don’t yet understand.
The snapping turtle.
The poop-in-the-house dog.
The neighbor with a different flag, belief, or background.
The person you keep bumping into who just might be holding your next life lesson.
Let’s be lofty. Let’s be soft.
Let’s be curious. Let’s be kind.
Let’s be the kind of people our pets already think we are.
Because every single being—animal or human—is trying to find safety, belonging, and love.
Let’s help them get there.
With heart,
Dr. Melissa Magnuson
The Conscious Vet
