Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2008. In front of Mattie was a slice of ice cream cake. This was NOT Mattie's birthday cake that was served at his party. Mattie had two cakes. A large one for his friends and then a small one for just the three of us at home. I always loved having a Carvel ice cream cake for my birthday. I have a summer birthday, and given that the weather is warm in July, ice cream was always the perfect type of cake for me. If you know a Carvel cake, then you are aware of the fact that it has vanilla and chocolate ice cream layers. Mattie despised chocolate. He did not like its look, smell or taste. So if you look closely at this photo, you will notice that I carved out the chocolate layer of ice cream and gave Mattie two layers of vanilla instead! In any case, we celebrated a birthday week with Mattie, not just one day.
Quote of the day: "A greylag goose that has lost its partner shows all the symptoms that [developmental psychologist] John Bowlby has described in young human children in his famous book Infant Grief . . . the eyes sink deep into their sockets, and the individual has an overall drooping experience, literally letting the head hang . . ." ~ Conrad Lorenz
In light of non-stop work today for the Foundation, I am posting something cute and yet intriguing! My mom sent me a cute email about the story of a lonely goose who is running around a neighborhood in Florida. The goose is causing havoc..... tearing through house screens, chasing children, and scaring residents. I included the link to the article and video below. Why? Well not just for its humor but I was fascinated when a resident noticed that the goose's personality changed soon after the death of his goose friend. Rather an astute observation!
We think of our feathered friends as being not too smart. After all being labeled a bird brain isn't a nice commentary. Yet humans are not the only ones to express emotion, at least an emotion like grief. I love tonight's quote from a Nobel laureate ethologist who has observed the impact of loss on a goose. The goose seemed to exhibit some of the same traits we do when grieving.
All I know is when Mattie died, we saw both Patches (our calico cat) and JJ (our resident Jack Russell Terrier) contend with grief. The cat and the dog expressed it in different ways. Patches spent a lot of time in Mattie's room and sitting on his pillows (something she never did), and she developed urinary issues (a sign of grief, according to our vet). As for JJ, he would come down to our unit and sit on our doorstep. He refused to eat for two weeks and apparently even slept with an old sandal of Mattie's for many months. None of us directed these animals to do this, they just did it.
Perhaps grief means something different to animals. It may, but what is clear is animals bond and when the bond is broken, there are consequences on behavior. Perhaps this goose feels the need to strut around and honk at others to get attention! To let others know something is wrong, something is MISSING! I relate to that goose, but unfortunately people don't honk nor is it socially acceptable to call attention to a loss (for any extended period of time).
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/lonely-goose-runs-a-fowl-causing-chaos-in-debary-neighborhood
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