Skip to content

16 thoughts on “Hopper Update”

  6. Larry Jones

    The beautiful thing about critters is they don't dwell on misfortune and feel sorry for themselves. They just get on with their lives. If she lost her tail all the way down to a stub, she wouldn't care, and she wouldn't seek special treatment (although I'll bet she would getspecial treatment).

    1. TheMelancholyDonkey

      Unfortunately, it turns out that this isn't really true. Animals get PTSD (or, at least something like it, if you're really uptight about PTSD being exclusively a human thing) after frightening or traumatic experiences. It is true that amputation specifically doesn't usually traumatize them (though I had a cat who had a leg amputated for which this wasn't true), but the experience leading up to it can.

      https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/08/wild-animals-ptsd/619736/

      1. gyrfalcon

        Thank you. I agree entirely.

        My cat was chased and very nearly caught by a bobcat right in front of my house some years ago. He escaped under the porch, but suffered from what I've called PTSD for the rest of his life-- another 7 or 8 years. He no longer curled up peacefully beside me overnight, but would after a few minutes without warning bolt from next to me, sometimes racing right across my head, onto the floor and out the door. It took him slightly longer to get to the "bolt" as the years went on, but the behavior continued right to the end.

      2. KawSunflower

        My sweet black male cat had been mistreated before I was allowed to rescue him on my second attempt. He shook in my arms when taken outside for fresh air, & was afraid of ANY man - as well as the nice woman neighbor who was in the habit of swinging a large bag..anything that could be used to beat him spooked us both.

        But he later walked with me on a leash in the quiet woods - then he discovered that he wanted to walk without a leash (people asked how I trained him!), right up to anyone who engaged in friendly conversation with me.

        So I believe that other creatures know PTSD & that some recover, enjoy life - & are mourned by friends & admiring strangers alike.

      3. Larry Jones

        @TheMelancholyDonkey
        Of course I don't know what's in the minds of the animals I encounter, and the article you reference deals with animals in the wild and their predators, so it may well be that these animals experience residual heightened vigilance after escaping an attack. I should have said "domestic critters," those who have humans who love them and care for them. The three-legged dogs and tailless cats I meet in my neighborhood appear to have moved on from whatever trauma they experienced, and don't display PTSD-type behaviors, and I admire them for that.

Comments are closed.