I could not do this

Renate, from Austria, describes a situation involving the injury of a friend's dog by a careless driver whose only remark to the owner was "it wasn't my fault." The question?

What would you do if you hurt an animal in a similar way? Then, she went on to ask (and this is the real question):

What is the worth of an animal's life?

I'm glad this question has arrived in my life now, and not a year ago when I'd just lost my cat, my pet, my pal of 16 years! Then, I couldn't even have typed the sentence.

In my next life...

I would like to be my own pet. I have two of the most incredibly pampered, well-fed, totally indulged cats you'd ever care to meet. And, that's what makes me think I know the answer to this question, from Taiwan:

I'm a person who loves animals very much and sometimes I'll wonder about whether keeping a pet is really good for them. If they could choose, would they choose to keep living with us?

I guess it does really depend on the animal, but I know that Boris and Natasha (the aforementioned pets) would have no idea how to hunt down a can of cat food in the wild, let alone skin it and eat it.