We got back from an almost-three-weeks trip to the East Coast this past weekend. During the time we were away, Daisy was shuttled around LA, from a boarding house to my sister’s house with two toddler children, to my parent’s house, which they keep at a chihuahua-unfriendly 68 degrees.
But more on all that later.
For now, I’m just wondering if during that time, Daisy missed us the way we (more specifically, he) missed her. Dogs have emotions, but do they experience “miss?”
It’s hard to explain what “missing” is or feels like, even to myself, as occasionally I’ll stop for a moment in the endless race that is my thoughts and feel a strange sense of “missing,” though without an object. I don’t who or what it is I miss, but I miss. Weird.
Missing is definitely different from sadness, different from loneliness or boredom. Dogs don’t seem to ever get sad (though I do often wonder if Daisy doesn’t suffer a mild form of doggy-depression), and she was never alone in those three weeks, but did she think about us while we were apart? Did she feel our absence? Did she wonder when, or even if, we were coming back to get her?
It also made me wonder if she ever missed her previous family, the one from which I adopted her.
When I picked her up from my parents’ and brought her home, he came out as soon as I pulled the car into the driveway and pulled Daisy out of the car. He definitely missed Daisy.
So much that he snuggled with her in the bed all morning.
Do you think dogs miss their people?
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Dogs totally miss people! but then they also equally quickly forget what they were missing. I had a dog in college while living with a family and when I went home for summer (12 weeks!) he’d scratch at my bedroom door and cry and cry and then he’d forget (probably when he was hungry and someone else was feeding him – he had his priorities right) and then he’d get on with his day. And then he’d sit at my door and cry again the next day. Heartbreaking. Big D looks HELLA COSY!!
I frequently work in Europe, and that requires that I board my little ones. One time I was away for three months… It was agony, let me tell you… and I even got the kennel (great place in Saratoga, WY, if you want recommendations) to open after hours to let me come get my fur kids when I got off the plane, and my boy stood there, barking and barking, alerting the world that people were moving around…
…and then he saw me. He immediately started to tremble violently, and peed all over everything, poor little guy! I’m quite certain that he missed me; my girl just did the barkbarkbark, I’m a little brat, barkbarkbark dance, and tried to run away from me when I got into the kennel with them.
I’m linking your blog as soon as I get home. Love Daisy!
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