All hell broke loose this weekend. An alert was sent out to all KC packs based on reports of impending neo attacks on both weredogs. werewolves and people.
The alerts did not allow for much finesse or planning. Many weredogs just had to take off, from wherever they were at the time. I operated yesterday with a weredog who is currently a police dog with the KCPD. He had to jump out of his police car, while his handler was doing a routine stop, and take off. The cops are using helicopters to search for him. He shakes his head when he talks about it. What a mess it is going to be going back.
Caitlyn and the weregirls are becoming tight friends. They know what she is, have known. They can smell what she is. It took them some time to discern her scent. I don't allow myself to get too close to them. I don't want them to discern my scent. Not yet.
The dad is thick with PTSD. I can smell it on him. I can see it in the way he moves, the way he walks, the way he clenches his hands.
Nearly all combat vets return with some degree of PTSD. Dogs too. Weredogs too. Some are effected more than others. If it is a problem and how much of a problem depends on a lot of factors - if the soldier has family and support, if he or she turns to booze or drugs, if they do PT, exercise regularly, if they have something religious or spiritual to sustain them, something to heal their heart, mind and soul. Some need counseling. Some don't.
The Army and rest of the military is more treating and recognizing PTSD in military dogs. Dogs are being diagnosed with PTSD, in Afghanistan and Iraq, and treated and retired based on their PTSD. It was not too long ago that military dogs were simply "destroyed" for being defective when they exhibited signs of stress and strain, symptoms now known to be PTSD.
The fact that more people, in particular the military, are recognizing PTSD in dogs is good. It requires that people recognize the emotional life of dogs.
Dogs having emotions has long been trigger issue for a lot of people, people who claim that only mankind has emotions, and to say that dogs and other animals have emotions is to unbalance the order of the world. But I am told that the opposite is true to any person who has ever looked into the eyes of a dog.
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3 comments:
It's ridiculous to assert that animals do not have emotions. I like to sway on the part of biology, and even biology of the brain PROVES animals have emotion. It is simply at different stages between human and animal. I'm not being a jerk, but there are differences between us that cause us to have more emotional reaction then the other. For example, a human or weredog will be more likely to have a more emotional reaction over schooling (because of the greater amount of abstract thinking they have). A dog will have a MUCH higher emotional reaction to the emotions of their loved ones than a human (due to having the mental ability to percieve emotions more clearly than a human.)
It does sound ridiculous at first, but it's true. Almost all living things have emotions, they're just set to react to different things and different intensities for certain emotional stimuli.
As for PTSD in dogs, I can believe that. My grandmother had a cat, who was a good cat. . . until a certain woman came over. I, to this day, have no idea what she did. But that woman changed the cat somehow. After, the cat became aggressive and paranoid of everything, attacked anyone except my grandma within a 5 foot radius, and was not the cat they had adopted. She showed signs of internal conflict that lasted until she died, and I'll never forget her.
I believe cats can be every bit as dedicated as dogs. My grandma died sometimes in September of one of my middleschool years. The cat died exactly a year later, on the same day my grandma did. I can only think that she followed her human and now they're together.
Not sure I follow you on dogs perceiving emotions more clearly than humans. Some humans perceive very clearly, and some dogs do not. Trust me.
Yes, I agree with you that all living things have emotions, that it is an aspect of life. Probably even plants. But plant emotions would then be very different than animals emotions, and dogs emotions are very different than human.
If you could read our dog's mind, or your cat's, you would not fathom their thoughts, or emotions, anymore than 2 computer can "talk" if they run on 2 different operating systems.
I have loved a few cats like you did your grandma's. It weird, but cats tend to like weredogs.
My basis for dogs perceiving emotions better than a human can is because of your sense of smell. You yourself have said on a post that you can smell things like fear and anger and loneliness.
I would love to try and understand my cat's emotions, even if in the end I couldn't. It's going to be hard when he passes.
Not to sound weird, but imagining a cat cuddling up to you seems cute.
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