Brian is a young man, maybe in his early 30's. Today he shared some of his story with me during phase 1 of a cat adoption. "Growing up we always had pets, like a lot of pets. Mom wasn't savvy about spaying and neutering and all that. If there were strays in the neighborhood, she'd feed them and the next thing you know, they'd be ours," said Brian. Working with people during pet adoptions, training, pet surrenders, and (especially) pet retention cases, sometimes I act as a counselor of sorts. It's my job to help people open up to explore what's going on under the surface. Some people have no desire to open up; these are the few and far between that seem incapable of bonding in a meaningful way with pets, or people. However, m ost open up with the right questions and a listening ear to follow. And others, like Brian, are so wise they need no prompting... they 'go there' all on their own....