You are right Scott… it did mess me up. Very heartwarming.
I’d think that the bonds people and dogs form have to be totally unique in the animal kingdom. I can’t think of any other animal with the exception of the cat that integrates itself so fully into human life. Never having really been around cats, I can’t say from experience, but there just seems to be a little something deeper between man and dog versus man and cat.
> the bonds people and dogs form have to be totally unique in the animal kingdom.
Very likely. Dogs are the critters that we have spent the most effort on breeding to *think* the way we want them to. Cows, sheep, pigs… who cares how or what they think, just so they’re tasty and fat. Cats are pretty much what we want of them (varmint hunters) right out of the box. But we have bred dogs to be loyal servants, and have bred them to be lifelong puppies. The consequence is that dogs seem to rely of humans much more for their emotional stability than other critters. Not saying that all dogs are so human-oriented or that none other animals are; it’s just that with dogs, the bell curve is pushed much closer to “human-dependent” than with other species.
And the result of that is an emotional bond that often trumps that between the human and other *humans,* or the dog and other *dogs.*
Dogs and cats seem to interact with people in two different ways; the dog is like a a loving slave who spends most of its time trying to make its master happy if it is well treated and loved.
The cat…it’s got a big ego and a lot of personality…depending on how it feels on any particular day or hour it may be very loving to you or basically tell you to go to hell, it doesn’t need you anyway.
Which is a lot more like how people act towards each other.
I think you own a dog, but you marry a cat. 😉
You are right Scott… it did mess me up. Very heartwarming.
I’d think that the bonds people and dogs form have to be totally unique in the animal kingdom. I can’t think of any other animal with the exception of the cat that integrates itself so fully into human life. Never having really been around cats, I can’t say from experience, but there just seems to be a little something deeper between man and dog versus man and cat.
Thanx for posting the story!
> the bonds people and dogs form have to be totally unique in the animal kingdom.
Very likely. Dogs are the critters that we have spent the most effort on breeding to *think* the way we want them to. Cows, sheep, pigs… who cares how or what they think, just so they’re tasty and fat. Cats are pretty much what we want of them (varmint hunters) right out of the box. But we have bred dogs to be loyal servants, and have bred them to be lifelong puppies. The consequence is that dogs seem to rely of humans much more for their emotional stability than other critters. Not saying that all dogs are so human-oriented or that none other animals are; it’s just that with dogs, the bell curve is pushed much closer to “human-dependent” than with other species.
And the result of that is an emotional bond that often trumps that between the human and other *humans,* or the dog and other *dogs.*
Dogs and cats seem to interact with people in two different ways; the dog is like a a loving slave who spends most of its time trying to make its master happy if it is well treated and loved.
The cat…it’s got a big ego and a lot of personality…depending on how it feels on any particular day or hour it may be very loving to you or basically tell you to go to hell, it doesn’t need you anyway.
Which is a lot more like how people act towards each other.
I think you own a dog, but you marry a cat. 😉
A similar tragedy happened to a former National Weather Service employee here in Birmingham:
http://www.alabamawx.com/?p=50167