My kind of solidarity

Solidarity is, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is a noun which depicts unity or agreement of feeling or action among individuals with a common interest. When we read this definition, what is the first thing that pops into mind? Nation or politics for instance? Or, submerging to more personal levels, marriage? Family? That is completely natural, given this definition. However, there is more to solidarity than just representing common interests and working towards common goals. The definition continues: solidarity also means mutual support within a group.

With this addition, we can broaden the “group” we have been talking about up until now with a (scientifically) inferior species: animals. More specifically domesticated animals. I believe we can all agree that mutual emotional support can come from animals as well. In difficult times, animals are sometimes more supportive to certain individuals than their own species, we humans.

Ever since I moved to the capital of my own country, I see homelessness all around me. Growing up in a town I have seen rough sleepers of course, but naturally the bigger the city is, the more people live their whole lives on the street. Being ashamed of not helping them enough and not being able to improve their situation, I hardly ever look at them. My heart sinks whenever I see elder people or children as beggars. The other day, however, I saw a woman sitting in front of her shattered tent with a dog. The woman was sharing her food, which might had been her first meal of the day, with her puppy.  I could barely glance at them, as I was getting on the bus. Since I had seen that scene, I just couldn’t, and still cannot, get it out of my head. Is it because of the woman and her dog? The mutual support that they unconditionally gift each other?   
Or is it because I was feeling, at that very moment, that animals sometimes show more solidarity to our fellow-beings than we do?