ABSTRACT
Animals have been at the centre of my life as far back as my memory extends, a child growing up on a wheat and sheep farm in Australia. Psychology came later, an emergent pathway into the push and pull of human life. The idea that animal lives were insignificant in contrast to human lives was never explicitly expressed to me; in contrast, (pet) animals were treasured family members and our sheep were critical to the farming business. Similarly, animals have in some ways been consequential to psychology, but in both the personal and the professional, context is critical. My mother cared for our horses in the same way she cared for us, her children, and it was through her actions that I began to understand that elevating animals was not a cognitive error, but an invitation into what would become the most critical part of my interest in human-animal studies: the juncture between human and animal.
