There's a moment that happens sometimes when you're sitting with a dog, or stroking a cat, or standing quietly beside a horse—a moment where something shifts. Your breathing slows. The tension you've been carrying in your shoulders releases. The animal leans into you, or sighs, or closes its eyes, and you realize you're both doing the same thing: settling. Not just physically, but in some deeper way that's hard to name. It feels like recognition, like being seen by a consciou