How Animals Grieve Read Online Free PDF

and a tiny white Chihuahua. The story itself was dismissive of the notion that dogs share enduring friendships. Dogs’ interactions lack the “constancy, reciprocity and mutual defense observed in species such as chimpanzees and dolphins,” wrote journalist Carl Zimmer. At this, dog people got hot under the collar. Led by animal behaviorist and dog trainer Patricia McConnell, they fired back that scientists underestimate dogs.
    Acts of dog-to-dog loyalty certainly exist. A video recorded in Chile shows cars and trucks whizzing by on a multilane highway. In the middle of the road a dog lies motionless. It has apparently been hit by a vehicle and is severely injured, if still alive. Then into the frame comes a second dog, zigzagging through the traffic. This dog isn’t very big, but he (or she) exudes a sense of determined purpose. He safely reaches the injured dog and begins to drag him to the median, even as cars zoom past. As a rescue worker approaches the two dogs, the video abruptly stops.
    The video’s narration is in Spanish, but none of us can fail to see what has happened: One dog has risked his life for another. From ensuing newspaper reports, we know that the injured dog died and the second dog ran off. Here again, as with Hachi and Mr. Enyo, we see no expression of dog grief. But in this case we have no back story, no idea of the circumstances. Were the two dogs friends with a shared history? Were they related to each other? No one knows. The rescuer dog was never found, a disappointing outcome for the people who expressed a desire to adopt him. Nonetheless, as one newspaper put it, that brave dog elicited “worldwide admiration” once the video clip went viral. I like to think that this incident in Chile invited millions of people to reflect on the depth of dog emotion.
    A happier outcome for a dog hit by a car is reported by Stanley Coren in
Modern Dog
(a publication with the delightful tag line “the lifestyle magazine for modern dogs and their companions”). Mickey, a Labrador retriever, and Piercy, a Chihuahua, were fast friends who lived together in a family’s home. Mickey was the older, and of course, much bigger of the pair. One day, Piercy ran into traffic and was struck by a car. The family, crying over the body, placed their pet in a sack and buried him in a shallow grave in their garden. Even Mickey seemed to express sorrow; the big Lab sat at the grave even after the rest of the family retired to bed.
    Sometime later, the father of the family was awakened by unusual noises coming from outside. He thought he heard a dog’s whining. Going outside to investigate, he found an open grave and an empty sack—and Mickey feverishly attending to his small friend. As the man watched, Mickey licked Piercy’s face and nuzzled Piercy’s body. He carried out these actions with great energy, as if trying to revive Piercy. The man thought these attempts hopeless. But in a flash his certainty faded: he saw a spasm run through Piercy’s body, then watched, astonished, as Piercy lifted his head and whimpered.
    Mickey’s acute hearing may have picked up sounds coming from Piercy’s grave as the little dog found himself buried alive—cues that the man, or any other human being, could not possibly have heard. Or maybe it was the legendary canine sense of smell that tipped Mickey off. Whatever sensory capacities may have been involved, Mickey’s love and loyalty must be fitted into the explanatory mix. If the big Lab hadn’t felt such a bond with his tiny friend, he wouldn’t have stayed vigilant by the grave, nor would he have labored so hard to extricate and revive the Chihuahua. Without Mickey, Piercy would surely have suffocated.
    Reports of heroic acts like those carried out by Mickey and the dog in Chile come along rarely. But they point toward a capacity for the emotions that may underlie dog grief. When two dogs enjoy each other’s company and are keenly attuned to each other’s whereabouts,