It is a rare moment when we get to appreciate that we are living in what is, sometimes, a kinder, better world. Such moments should be acknowledged. When fire devastated Fort McMurray, people pulled together to help one another, as humans do on our better days. But one human reaction stood out as something new and unexpected, a signal that our values and our sense of the world have shifted in a welcome direction: the remarkable outpouring of emotion and concern for abandoned household animals threatened by the flames.