It is easy to say how we love new friends, and what we think of them, but words can never trace out all the fibers that knit us to the old.
I do not believe in pure idioms. I think there is naturally a desire, for whoever speaks or writes, to sign in an idiomatic, irreplaceable manner.
I love animals, always have, and it seemed natural to help the ASPCA. Animals have no voice of their own, so we have to be that voice.