I think how you treat animals says a lot about you as a person. I read about horrible cases of abuse and I can’t imagine what kind of person would do something like that — animals that are starved and beaten and abused in ways I can’t even bear to think about. They are God’s creatures and do not deserve what they sometimes get from people.  

Right now, all three of my dogs were at one point abandoned. I have a Treeing Walker who was abandoned as a puppy, a Blue Tick hound who was dumped off as an adult and a Lab-mix who was dumped at the shelter.  

Elsie Hickman is a Lake Martin resident and weekly columnist for The Outlook.