Are humans capable of feeling grief?
Dear George,
Do humans mourn the loss of another human? Are they intelligent enough to recognise that a human is dead? Should we take any special measures if our humans lose a loved one?
Yours thoughtfully
Ziggy.
Dear Ziggy,
As you know humans are not a highly intelligent species, but I believe that they have the same feelings as we do, even if they are unable to think higher order feline thoughts. So we must assume that they do mourn the loss of a loved companion.
The signs of mourning in a human are water leaking from the eyes, confusion, exhaustion and breaks in the normal routine. I am currently seeing this in Celia, who is mourning her companion human Ronnie. I made sure she saw the body, so she knows he is dead.
I am ensuring she tries to follow some of her normal routine by insisting on breakfast at the normal time, so that she eats some too. At night I take up extra space in the bed, so that she does not so badly miss the warmth of his body. I am also showing her extra affection through the day. She is finding this comforting.
Yours
George
Help for cats whose humans show behaviour problems.
This blog is devoted to the study of human behaviour. We cats, who live with this sometimes unpredictable and always feeble minded species, can benefit from seeing their behaviour in its proper scientific context. The study of feline dilemmas, training problems, and difficulties with humans, can only benefit all of us. All of us train our humans - to buy the right food, for instance, but many of us do not have knowledge of how to improve our training methods. The human species is obviously not as intelligent as the cat, but nevertheless can learn quite a lot - if properly managed. Topics of interest include the use of claw and order, purring as a human reward, rubbing your human up the right way, when to bite, spraying as a method of making our wishes known, ignoring the human, human harassment, human inattention and sheer human stupidity. I welcome your questions. Photos can be sent via my secretary's website, www.celiahaddon.com This blog has been chosen as one of the top 50 feline blogs by Online VetTechprogramms.org
Blessings. I got a little leaky eyed reading that. xox
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work George. Tell Celia the sun will be shining just for her tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteGood work George. You Rock pal.
ReplyDeleteGeorge, tell Celia we are sending lots of loving thoughts for her and time will heal the awful hurt.
ReplyDeleteDear George, take good care of Celia at this difficult time for her; she does deserve every bit of it. Make sure Tilly and Toby behave and give her much love and attention. She loves attention & affection :-)
ReplyDeleteWe send her our love & hugs & thoughts.
Fluffy & the gang (aka my human parents)
PS. I'm late in e-mailing you because I didn't have access to my computer. I still don't know if the computer or my human was sick!