As far as animals are concerned I would best identify with a German Shepherd or other large, protective dog. I would even go so far as to identify with the wolves that once roamed Europe. Steadfast loyalty to one's pack is something I see as belonging to a kindred spirit.
As I've been taught since boyhood, loyalty is a value to be prized above all to one's family, one's organization, and one's beloved. Failure to do so condemns one to the icy depths of Lake Cocytus for all eternity.
Even before Goliath was in my life, large canines were always a part of my life. My father raised a
Boerbel from puppyhood, a South African mastiff, which started when I was four years old. His name was Ajax, after the Grecian warrior of the Trojan wars, large of size and steadfast of loyalty like his mythological counterpart.
Dad raised him to protect the family whenever he was away with the military, which was frequently.
And of my siblings I felt closest kinship with the dog. I remember feeling it was rather unfair that as my life expanded his began to contract, to a point that he could not see past his own snout by my last year of high school. I was deeply saddened when Ajax passed over the Rainbow Bridge shortly after I joined the South African Army. I had a small headstone commissioned for him with my first paycheck that Mum put in the garden.
It read:
Ajax
In Loving Memory of the Guardian Dog of the Bilby Family
June 1987 - July 2001
Rescquiat Im Pace
Canis Familiaris Pia Fidelis
Every afternoon he would wait for us children to come home, even as infirmity and age weakened him, his tail would wag mightily when we would pass through the door and he would greet us enthusiastically as we came home from school.
It was this loyalty from a being outside our own species that inspired me to bring Goliath into my life.
On a lighter note, I was grateful that the Pope finally said that dogs do in fact ascend to Heaven. Though since having Goliath in my life I debate whether it is Boerbels or German Shepherds that guard the Gates of Saint Peter to Paradiso.
(A/N: The Latin of the last line translates into the species name of the domestic dog (all breeds) and Pious and Faithful. Pia Fidelis was a title often bestowed to Roman Legions by emperors for faithful and steadfast service, and Ajax was a loyal and protective companion of our family for many years.)