�
2006-04-26 - 9:54 a.m.
Saw this story about a rescued humpback whale "thanking" it's rescuers on digg.
This is the kind of stuff that makes me feel a poignant ache in my heart.
Yeah, like the guy says, not to anthropomorphize it too much... but I know, and you know, that other species have connections to humans. Cats and dogs are the obvious. And I don't think it's far-fetched to believe that the whale felt gratitude. Perhaps not in exactly the same way as humans do, but I think something we obviously recognize as the rescuers said.
I keep coming back to this, but when I realized it, it filled me with wonder and delight; cats and horses are friends sometimes. So, if those two species can have a connection, it's not unreasonable to believe that other pairs of species could have a connection.
And why not? All the animals in question are mammals. Look at us, we're all more alike than we are different. Our skeletons are pretty close, even whales. So it stands to reason that our minds must be similar. Of course I don't expect a cat to have the depth of thought that a human does, or even a horse. I mean, how big are their brains, the size of a walnut? But our biology is similar, so why not our emotions? We certainly can recognize things like fear and anger in other species, right? So why not gratitude and love?
***************
�
So, how do you like them apples?