On This Cruel Ability We Have to Accept Animals as Family, and Then Get to Hurt When They Pass...

[JeffreyWilliamson]

...almost as if they were really human.

Why do we do this? What evolutionary adaptation has allowed us to adopt them into our homes and view them as just another person, when in reality we know that they truly aren't. And knowing that they aren't human, why do we have the capacity to hurt so much--as we would when another person passes--when they die?

My best friend Joey just let me know that his dog, Princess, died last night at around midnight. He and I were roommates about 4 years ago, and so I lived with her for about 5 years. He told me that when he left for work yesterday afternoon that she saw him off and that he noticed--he knew by looking at her--that she was ready. She was an older dog, and he said that he had been expecting this day for some time, but when he saw her he knew right at that moment that she was seeing him off to tell him goodbye. His family watched after her for the rest of the day so that she wouldn't have to be alone, and sure enough she passed away before he could make it home from a late shift. Today he found her a nice place in the yard, under a shade tree, where she can rest from now on.

All of this instantly brought back the death of one of my own dogs, Piper, in August 2006. That little dog used to follow me around, ride with me in the car, run on the beach together--do everything with me. I used to walk around the house talking to her as if I expected her to answer in clear English at any moment. I felt like she was my little sister. To this day I still dream every now and then that I'll come home, open the door, and it will all have been a mistake and she'll still be here, just as if nothing happened. That is until I wake up...

I wonder how such an ability developed, and how it benefitted us in a way to be passed on to us. Does this ability come merely from the fact that we are a social species, or is it an adaptation that we developed in order to work more closely with domesticated animals, especially dogs?

Whatever the reason, it can be as wonderous as it can be cruel, just as all of nature can be...