Animals and emotions

[suncat76]

Hi Jeff,
I have worked with cats and dogs for over 30 years as an Animal Health Tech and as a breeder. I respectfully disagree with your assessment that they do not have any long term memory capabilities. I will not cite many examples but there is a movie out there based on a true story of a dog that it's master died at work one day of a heart attack. For the remainder of the dogs life it went to the train station every day and waited for it's master. This was for many years. There were numerous attempts to rehome the dog with various family members and the dog would escape and go back to the train station. The dog died at the train station of old age waiting for his master as he had before he died.
There was just a write up in National Geographic about elephants and the long term memory effects on calves of seeing their mothers killed and the long term effects and the fact that they are now saying that they can suffer a post traumatic stress type of disorder as a result.
Just because they do not speak in a verbal language we can easily interpret does not mean they lack the ability to experience the loss and grief we suffer. Anyone who has done extended work with animals will be able to tell you of cases similar to what has been described above and the symptoms that non verbally state the grief and loss they are experiencing.
I suspect that you will not change your mind but it might be worth keeping it in mind next time you see a case where this could be applicable and consider adding it into your repertorization and see if it doesn't perhaps lead you to a different remedy and what sorts of results you get.
Leora