[Quiet Man Cometh]

I used to like to watch my mom's fish swim around. You could definitely see little personalities happening if you watched them long enough. They also knew feeding time from both following your hands as well as through the sound of the food dish. If I moved my hand across the tank glass, they would follow it, and if I rattled the lid of the ceramic food dish, the bulk would zoom to the top of the tank.

I think animals in general are loads more intelligent and capable than we generally assume, simply because they don't communicate in 'human.'

I find it interesting, I guess, but not surprising, how we can be upset over losing something/one that we didn't expect to miss, possibly because we didn't expect it to come up. Toby's loss was a shock to all of us, and since I was never attached to her I guess it never occurred to me to really think about what my feelings towards her actually were. I stayed with her not for me, but because I felt it would be cruel to her, as a highly social dog, to leave her with a stranger at the end. I balled my eyes out anyway.

I chalk it up to them being family, or at least a familiar presence in life, and it's noticed when they are gone.