Do Animals Love Each Other?

[Doondoo]

See for yourself...

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngkids/0602/index.html

[justiceischeap]

1. I know my cats love each other

You can just "tell."

[devilgrrl]

17. I had two cats...

one of them dead a year or so ago. The surviving cat was deeply depressed for months afterward. Yes animals love each other. :-(

[Marnieworld]

2. My dogs love eachother

They are the best of friends, brothers.

[Raven]

3. I think so.

I've always had two dogs and when my older dog died, the younger one went into a kind of mourning for about a month. She really seemed depressed. Now she has a puppy to play with and they are inseparable. I think animals are more capable of love than most humans.

[Arkansas Granny]

10. My younger dog went through the same type of experience when

my older dog died. She got really excited one day when she found a clump of hair that had been shed by the older dog and ran around the yard looking for her for about 30 minutes. She wouldn't come to me or come in the house, just kept looking for her buddy.

[Marie26]

30. Me too

We had two cats when I was growing up. When one cat died, the other cat refused to eat, and would go outside to sit next to her friend's gravesite - for hours. It was so touching & sad. Of course they can love.

[redwitch]

4. Lovely!

Thanks for sharing! And I am sure they do. My littlest cat Gloria adores our big male, Mac. She has special sounds she uses only for him, grooms him constantly and is never happier than when snuggled up against him. It is really sweet.

[Marnieworld]

5. Wow. Great link

The gorilla one made me cry. :cry:

[YOY]

16. Me too! Amazing at the same time

Of course, we really are nothing more than their evolved cousins so why should it be all too different?

[yellerpup]

6. Sweet link

I watched every one of them. Makes me think of SETI and sending our message out into space when we can't even communicate with species here on earth after millennia of living side-by-side.

[zanne]

7. One of my cats is in love with a feral.

The cutest little female (don't worry; she's been checked out and spayed by a Vet) comes to the window and Amos (sweet little guy) has to go out to be with her. I used to think she was just shadowing him, but he just went out in the snow to snuggle with her under a garden bench. (I tried to get a picture, but there are tons of Bittersweet vines in the way).

[peace13]

8. Thanks for this.

In our dark world it is good to read about the animals. Peace, Kim

[Missy M]

9. All my cats love each other...

they are always sleeping together intertwined and washing each others heads. My daughter who lived here for awhile until she moved to another country loved the cats and they have been crying and looking for her since December.

[Kerrytravelers]

20. Mr. kt was on a business trip two week ago.

He was only away for one night. The whole night, Pitter-pat was searching all over the place. He was standing on the table, looking all over. he was running in and out of rooms, crying. At night, Pitter-pat usually sleeps on a pillow above mine, and by morning he's usually crashed out on his own pillow and and mine (I usually wake up nose to nose with Pitter-pat.) That night, he was stretched out from his pillow, to mine, with his paws resting on Mr. kt's pillow.

[Kerrytravelers]

11. I have often wondered this same thing.

Pitter-pat seems happiest when he's close to one of us. I call it love, but that's me putting my feelings on him. However, I know he feels safe and gets a comforted feeling when he's near us, which is what love it!


Here is a picture of love:

[TZ]

14. What a great picture for Valentines day!!

My two kitties who are sisterslove each other (and share everything with no jealousy) and love me too I know. I can just hear the purr from that kitty just from that picture. Love is not quantifiable it just is as I think you illustrate nicely!!:)

[hlthe2b]

12. To see my doggie girl spot a puppy-hood friend from afar...

--another doggie that she'd spent many happy hours playing with years ago, is just a treat... Even several hundred yards away, her entire body language changes, ears slick back and her entire body becomes one welcoming "worming" excited form. Then come the frantic whines to see her former buddy.
It is a sight to behold. Even after 4-5 years of absence, she will react the same!

Sadly, on rare occasions she thinks she sees a dog that looks like one of her former buddies from so distant that only I know it is not her bud... I'll say something like, "No, it isn't Henry, sweetie.. I'm sorry.." and she calms down slightly. But I know that if I don't let her be SURE, she is not truly satisfied and may even get a little depressed!

I love my doggies (current and past) so much and only wish I could get non-dog people to understand how truly amazing they can be!

[Clark2008]

13. Of course they do.

When my two female dogs are separated for any length of time, they always literally kiss each other's faces when they're reunited.

They're best buds.

[mnhtnbb]

15. Of course! My two cats groom each other, play together (they're 11), and

sleep together in the same chair.

[havocmom]

18. When ol Smudge knew her time had come, she snuggled down with me, like always

then, got up in the night, laid an ancient cat paw on Louie Cat as he slept. Reminded me for all the world like Spock to McCoy in that Star Trek movie where Spock died. It was like ol Smudge was telling Louie "Remember" as he slept. She was seldom openly affectionate with Louie. She thought him rough around the edges and not a 'proper cat', but there was real tenderness in her gesture.

Then she made it down to the place in the corner where Havoc liked to sleep. She had known him since he was a tiny kitten. He ended up with us a few months after Smudge's dear pall and nephew cat Pete died too young. Havoc and been the spark that kept old Smudge going.

She just sat, looking at the big sleeping marmalade cat, then she carefully snuggled and laid her tiny head across his big butt. She purred and just stayed there. It was NOT a normal thing. I fell back asleep.

When I woke up at dawn, she was not in the bedroom with me and the other two cats. She had gone of to a quiet spot in the living room and was in the last stages.

She died, conveniently, on a day I had already scheduled off from work for a memorial service for best (human) friend's sister. She would do whatever she could to make my life easier, right up to the end. She was frail and failing for some time, but had stayed fairly happy and comfy. She hung on just long enough for me to meet Havocdad and get the feeling he was a very special person who would have a very big part in my life.

She raised Havoc, taught the shelter cat Louie how to be a cat and a part of a family. She taught me about love, caring and staying in the fight until your part was over.

Eight years ago, and I am sitting here crying all over again. She laid a paw on Louie, and I know she told him REMEMBER.

Louie and Havoc split up Smudge's duties. All the things she did to 'take care of mom' suddenly got done by the two big males. Gestures and efforts they had never made before, they started doing.

'Remember'

Havoc passed two years later. Louie, just three years ago. The dog, acquired just before Havoc died, well, he was lost without the last of his cat friends.

The big dog damned near turned cartwheels when he realized the little kitten that latched onto my hand at a friend's house was going home with us.

He loves his cat sister. She worships him. When they are not fighting like cats & dogs, or brothers and sisters.



Anybody who insists animals don't have feelings and that they only do instinctive things to survive, well they are just fools who don't pay attention.

[TZ]

19. thanks for sharing

that really touched me.:)

[smokey nj]

24. Your post brought tears to my eyes!

That is one sweet picture.

[MedleyMisty]

25. Aw man, you made me cry

I am so happy that all those cats had love in their lives.

I'm going to give my three plenty of hugs. And yes, of course other species can love.

[MoonRiver]

21. What a wonderful link!

:kick:

[JacksonWest]

22. Some animals mate for life. Which makes me happy.

Yeah, I kind of want to believe animals can love each other.

[InvisibleTouch]

23. Some do, some don't.

In my household, the oldest female dog (age 5) "tolerates" the 2-year old male, who adores her. The 9-month-old female pup absolutely worships him. It's so funny to see her flirt! They're closer in age and temperament, so it makes sense. Just like with any other species, some personalities are compatible and some aren't.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

26. Lovely. Thanks for the link. K&R

[Hubert Flottz]

27. Not republican animals.

They just want what the other animals have.

[WI_DEM]

28. Oh yes, I don't think love is only a human emotion.

[Cerridwen]

29. Yes, I believe they do love AND I believe they practice a

belief that they "are their brother's keeper". Which should be a lesson to all us 'highly evolved' humans.

"Something took a bite of my side," Mr. Richardson, a 29-year-old diver, told The Associated Press by telephone from el-Tur on Wednesday. "I started panicking for a bit, then it took another chunk of my upper arm."

Mr. Richardson's companions then watched as three bottlenose dolphins encircled the wounded man, flapping their fins and tails and scaring off the shark.

"This defensive behavior of dolphins is common when mothers are protecting their calves from predators," said a statement by the Recanati Center for Maritime Studies at the University of Haifa in Israel.

The statement said the dolphins continued to circle for several minutes until Mr. Richardson's companions reached him. link

Matthew Harvey went diving alone in the frigid waters of Fermain Bay, off the Channel Islands (between England and France) on Saturday morning, and when he failed to return home, his family reported him missing. An air and sea search was conducted but was called off on Sunday evening.

Then, after more than 50 hours, Harvey was spotted 200 yards from shore by the crew of a passing yacht. Rescuers Anne and Steve Westwood said Harvey was surrounded by at least 150 dolphins when they found him.

<snip>

"Its entirely possible that they did understand he was in trouble, and it's quite possible they helped him," Simmonds told NBC.

"Certainly the dolphins -- as intelligent air breathing mammals themselves -- are well known to help other wounded or dying members of their own schools get to the surface. They seem able to extend this understanding to our own situation," Simmonds said in an article link

Bleeding heavily and clinging to an upturned boat, Grant Dickson described how a group of sharks had stalked him after his fishing boat had sunk.

It was, he felt, only a matter of time before they attacked him.

Talking on Australian television, the fisherman said one shark in particular was moving closer and closer, before the intervention of a pod of dolphin which moved in and scared the predators away.

His ordeal lasted several more hours as he continued to drift in the Pacific ocean. link

And, just for the sake of argument, let's say the animal "love" stories are just about the survival of their species. If that is the case, then I'd say they are doing a helluva a better job of it than we humans do AND they include even those who are not like them! At the very least, "animals" have an understanding of survival which we humans don't.

note: I googled dolphins save diver (no quotes) to come up with those 3 examples if you'd like to read more.

[The Straight Story]

31. I am wondering if animals get boob jobs or facelifts

or if they just love each other as is.

[Uncle Joe]

32. There are some photos floating on the internet of a Tiger nursing pigs

in a zoo.The Tiger's cubs died and she went in to depression, the zoo keepers wrapped tiger skins around the piglets and the Tiger raised them as her own. I am not skilled with photography transfer, but those pics will blow your mind.