Animals

[vinteuil]

Anthropomorphism, particularly in its more sentimental manifestations, could be seen as an overcompensation for the way humanity has separated itself out from and elevated itself over the rest of the natural order.

I think there's a lot of truth in that.

I do think that human beans are (thro' their consciousness and organizing abilities) radically different from the rest of 'natural' creation.

I think the fight against sentimentality and sloppy romantic thinking is neverending...

[Lateralthinking1]

Quote - Anthropomorphism, particularly in its more sentimental manifestations, could be seen as an overcompensation for the way humanity has separated itself out from and elevated itself over the rest of the natural order.

That is a very good point. I don't think it is quite a question of cuddly. I find animals more impressive - witness the goats on the dam. I think many of them look more beautiful, certainly facially and in terms of colours. I like the way that they don't draw up moral and legal codes which then they break while applying them to others. They are more resourceful. And they lack cynicism.

[Serial_Apologist]

I think there's a lot of truth in that.

I do think that human beans are (thro' their consciousness and organizing abilities) radically different from the rest of 'natural' creation.

I think the fight against sentimentality and sloppy romantic thinking is neverending...

The one capacity separating humans from the rest of the animal principality is conceptual thought. Leaving aside its obvious advantages, conceptualisation's main drawback lies in the way it splits up understanding into categories, which are then studied in-depth so as to look at smallest detectable units for basic explanations. Science has grown up in this respect: categories such as geopolitics and sociolinguistics in the disciplines at least acknowledging and trying to effect joined-up thinking; but popular consciousness lies uncomprehendingly for the most part in the past, religion and its effects on even secular thinking still encourages us to place the blame for all the problems of life on ourselves for being ineluctably supposedly at the mercy of traits inherited from lower down the evolutionary ladder. Language, which could help clarify, (since the capacity for language inherent in our natural endowment is as much part of the "bigger intelligence" as the survival capacity of any species), instead divides, and we take the divisions as ontological, rather than conceptual. We mistake the road map for the journey.

[Pianorak]

I got involved with a dog rescue organisation and when time permits I do some short-term fostering to give the dogs a break from kennels.
My current foster dog, a staffy cross: http://gallery.myff.org/gallery/1185530/P1010907.JPG
Alas, since there has not been a single enquiry it looks as if he's got his paws firmly under the table. Mercifully he doesn't suffer from separation anxiety. Never been a "cat man".

[Mary Chambers]

I feel sorry for urban foxes, some of whom are scurvy and thin. I feel even more sorry for the gutted and dismembered hedgehogs I have had to clear up in the garden. And yes, I know it's just food to the fox,but.........

Goodness, do foxes eat hedgehogs? How do they cope with the prickles? I wonder if that's why I very rarely see a hedgehog now, where they once were frequent visitors. I know there is the occasional fox here now.

[vinteuil]

Language, which could help clarify....

... but a great evolutionary advance was when humans realised that "language could help deceive"...

It is our ability to deceive one another that has made society and civilization possible.

[Mr Pee]

Goodness, do foxes eat hedgehogs? How do they cope with the prickles? I wonder if that's why I very rarely see a hedgehog now, where they once were frequent visitors. I know there is the occasional fox here now.

Foxes have been predating on hedgehogs for many years, but only more recently has the hedgehog population begun to nosedive. The reasons are many and varied, from loss of habitat- tidier gardens, fewer hedgerows- to the greater number of cars on the road, slug pellets,thoughtless use of strimmers, and littering, amongst others.

Much as it pains me to link to a Guardian article , this one does highlight the issues rather well- and quite poignantly, I think:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/jan/17/g2.ruralaffairs

[salymap]

Goodness, do foxes eat hedgehogs? How do they cope with the prickles? I wonder if that's why I very rarely see a hedgehog now, where they once were frequent visitors. I know there is the occasional fox here now.

It's not very nice Mary. They attack the poor little creatures in their soft stomach.

[Anna]

Lat knows of my love of goats so maybe that's why he posted the clips! They have a keen intelligence but sheep aren't entirely dumb, it's been proved they have long memories of their past shepherds.

Although I grew up with a dog (a Staffy in fact) I have no empathy with them and am definitely a cat person (although not owning one at present) as, silly I know, but you can really commune with a cat and share deep thoughts. It's understandable why the Egyptians thought they were Gods. Their habit of bringing in small mammals is not so much fun.

The owls that I mentioned, I've never heard them at dawn before. One thing I remember vividly is being scared out of my skin when a barn owl floated silently a few feet above me as I was walking home very late, that was quite a magical moment on a moonlit night.

[Nick Armstrong]

... It is our ability to deceive one another that has made society and civilization possible.

??

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/20...er-photography

you can really commune with a cat and share deep thoughts.

Talking of goats, you'll have got vinteuil's with that remark!

A propos, 3 feline siblings have resided at Chateau Caliban over the last couple of decades, reduced now to the single surviving 19 yo dowager...

[salymap]

Cats for me too, nearly every time, although I once had a lovely Cairn Terrier, but then they're very cat like with pretty faces. We/I have owned three black and white cats, the sort Old Possum, [T.S Eliot], called Jellicle Cats for some reason.

[ahinton]

We/I have owned three black and white cats, the sort Old Possum, [T.S Eliot], called Jellicle Cats for some reason.

According to Wiki, the name jellicle comes from a previously unpublished poem by Eliot entitled Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats, where jellicle cats is a corruption of dear little cats and pollicle dogs of poor little dogs; it goes on to mention something about someone called Lloyd but, since it's evidently neither Jonathan nor George of that ilk, I don't think that we need to concern ourselves with that so I sensibly omitted to quote it.

[Mr Pee]

One thing I remember vividly is being scared out of my skin when a barn owl floated silently a few feet above me as I was walking home very late, that was quite a magical moment on a moonlit night.

Cycling home a few weeks ago, a Barn Owl took off from a fence post at the side of the lane and flew ahead of me for some distance. Magical. One feels almost as though one has had a glimpse into a secret world.

[ahinton]

Cycling home a few weeks ago, a Barn Owl took off from a fence post at the side of the lane and flew ahead of me for some distance. Magical. One feels almost as though one has had a glimpse into a secret world.

MIght it have been one of Elgar's Owls?

[Chris Newman]

One thing I remember vividly is being scared out of my skin when a barn owl floated silently a few feet above me as I was walking home very late, that was quite a magical moment on a moonlit night.

I deserved the time a barn owl put the wind up me. As a teenager I was talking with a friend under a street light and heard an owl hooting further up the street so I did my (I thought) famous reply by blowing through my thumbs. A few puffs later and the bird literally parted my hair for me.