Day by day, the bars of my prison kept increasing. Fear and desperation clung to me for I had no idea when or rather if those barricades would ever be taken down. Every new day started turning into a nightmare. Over a year ago, I could never have imagined my freedom to be bound to the four walls of my house.

It seemed as if fate was playing a twisted game with us. We, humans, are quite famous for stealing the freedom of helpless animals. And it seemed as if nature retaliated by serving us a dose of our own medicine. So, during this penance, COVID-19 allowed me to empathize with animals. It taught me that animals were no lesser than us. Often people think that having them caged is acceptable. But this pandemic changed my perspective. If we found it hard to live with a permanent lock on our door, why is it any different for them? A few weeks into the lockdown, we have seen multiple encounters in which animals had reclaimed their homes. It shows how utterly wrong we were to take away their liberty. Our entertainment in no way has priority over their lives.

This pandemic irrefutably opened my eyes to the pain and despair that animals were feeling. It makes me feel ashamed that our imprudent actions were the source of their suffering. This shows that being privileged makes us blind. Sometimes only when we are stripped of everything, leaving us barely hanging onto the bare minimum of life, can we understand the misfortunate others.

Ultimately, it’s crucial to understand the difference between both the situations:
our homes might have been cages, but we made cages into their homes.