Would you believe that one of the saddest stories I've seen in a great long while was an episode of the animated show Futurama?

Well, it's the truth. The latest episode, Jurassic Bark, was a nicely crafted, melancholy story about the eternal love of a dog, and despite the laughs (of which there were plenty, as usual), it had the most depressing ending you could possibly imagine...in a good way, that is. Really, truly, awfully sad. Old Yeller sad. Really heart-wrenching.

And for some reason it hit me particularly hard, in a moist hankie sort of way, because it's Futurama -- it's supposed to be light and funny, dammit! -- and because sad stories about animals always, always, always get me. Just like everyone else, I have my share of sad pet stories. My first and only dog died only months after I left to study in America, and was buried under a tree in my parents' garden. She was really beautiful, and really loyal, and I always felt guilty for leaving her. And my previous cat Smelly (he wasn't; that was just his name) got run over by a car one Saturday night. I found him by the side of the road the next morning, after I'd called his name a number of times. I just knew that something had happened to him. It was the strangest, most awful feeling in the world.

So I guess that's why. More to the point, I'm an extremely melancholy person, and when stories describe loss and loyalty and an enduring, eternal sadness...well, there's nothing better and nothing worse. I empathise. Loss is very personal to me. My own stories are like that. My best stories are about losing someone or something, about sacrifice, about abandoning everything for what's right or true or necessary, and about being left behind or about leaving other people behind. Because that's life, in all its beauty and all its sorrow, and it's something that we humans have to go through and endure. Loss is the only certainty. For that reason alone we should learn to take better care of each other when we're here.

*Sniff*

I guess I've gone all soft after watching that episode. It was really, really good, though, and if you're not too afraid of feeling a bit melancholy yourself (you shouldn't; it's important to feel that way once in a while), check it out if you get the chance.  ¶ 21:53