james---oh yes. And I'd like to add that to this day my NF has only Austrian dogs, and is wont to say (please, I cringe, I really cringe), "Hitler was right." This does differ from how I grew up. As a child my father mistreated animals in front of me because he knew how devastating it was, and that made it good for control. I remember each instance with such sadness and fury.
But now, I have five formerly abandoned cats and various other "volunteers" who come here for comfort, health care, and peace. Raccoons, an opossum, every spring, blue jay and robin fledglings that must be saved from the cats, so we sit shifts outside, gathering them up. We do for them what nobody did for us. I worry that some N victims turn their fury on the animals who get the attention they didn't, but for me, NONE of us got any, we were in it together, and I'm grateful to be able to "talk to the animals" today. Because you know what? they really do talk!