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RainydayNE -> RE: Dog tries to save road kill buddy (12/3/2008 3:12:23 PM)
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i totally agree with BlackPhx :) animals are so much more THERE than alot of humans are willing to admit. as long as we keep the divide betwen "us" and "them" as wide as possible, we feel better about ourselves. or something silly like that.
my dog learns things VERY fast. he's a bit neurotic because now that his friend has died, i've sort of turned into a smothering mother hen =p but i taught him to high-five in about 5 minutes over thanksgiving =p he knows my rats' names and if they get out of their cage, he'll follow them and tell me where they are =p if i notice one is out and ask him "where is suchnsuch?" he'll perk up and help me look. =p
he can't TALK, but he can communicate in any number of ways that i understand. and getting his point across IS communication, whether it's using a human language or not.
and getting into the subject of rats, most people HATE the little things, but if you watch them without bias for a few minutes, you'll find that they're far more remarkable than people think. if a cagemate is sick or dying, the others will huddle with it to keep it warm. they'll bring food closer, especially things containting liquids. one of my rats went into a depression and died when his best friend died. =p he stopped eating and spent most of his time curled up in a ball until one day he was gone.
once i was bitten by a rat i had who was terrified of baths. =p his cagemates tried to keep him out of the cage altogether, and one of them took it upon himself to punish the biter. they wouldn't huddle with him, they wouldn't associate him. when the biter came towards them, they'd move away. they'd understood that he'd done something "not good." i wasn't really mad at him because i understood he was afraid of water, but had to be washed because he was gross beyond belief. =p the other rats were the ones who made a big deal out of it. =p eventually they accepted him again into their group but it was VERY interesting to watch. =p and ironically, after that, that rat, who'd always had a weird chip on his shoulder, became the biggest lap pet of them all. =p
and EVERYBODY knows about meerkats. =p and elephant moms who mourn their dead calves and remain at their graves until they almost starve to death, etc etc etc
what about that lioness featured on Mutual of Omaha that adopted a baby gazelle whose mother had been killed by another lion? =p
animals are capable of alot of things that are only 'impressive' because we have a tendency to devalue them.
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