I do it all the time;
“Oh, look, you’ve made her sad.”
“Don’t, you’ll scare him.”
“She’s so cute, it’s like, ‘Muuum, give me love!'”
“Look at her, she’s smiling. She’s so happy.”
But then someone told me, “You realise they don’t actually feel like that, right? That’s a human concept. You’re applying humanities societal values and expectations on an animal.”
I was like… come again?
I suppose it makes sense but, I like to think Fletcher feels something for me. Wouldn’t it be completely mortifying to think that the intense love you have for your animals isn’t reciprocated? That in fact, they actually don’t care a jot about you?
I like to think Fletcher loves me and that she enjoys cuddling me like I like cuddling her. Is it because it makes me feel good? Maybe.
But if animals don’t feel things like we do; don’t feel sad when they’re pushed off the couch, aren’t happy when we come home, don’t miss us when we leave… then what do they feel?
Do they even feel at all? Or is all they feel hunger? Do they feel with their nose? Do they just react to our body language like a parrot or a mime?
I don’t know.
I think that we’re so intricate, so crazily different, with such a huge array of perspective that to see through someones eyes, to see the world in a completely different light would be something quite wonderful.
Do you think animals have feelings?
Nonsense From Computer Bound Girl 