[pct-l] Leaving pets

[Daniel Zellman]

Becky,

Compassion for your fellow creature, such as you express here, is nothing
to be embarrassed about. Indeed, it is admirable. My partner and I are
going to be leaving our beloved pooch, Stanley, who rescued us by the side
of the road down near Corpus Christie a little over a year ago. We are
fortunate to have found a congenial foster situation with a colleague who's
willing to give him a home for six months as we attempt our first
thru-hike.

How am I / are we dealing with it? Well, speaking for myself only, my
belief in his Buddha nature is helping most. By which, I guess I mean, the
way he (and pretty much all non-human creatures) live so totally in the
present moment. Oh, sure, he'll mope and be sad and miss and look for us
for a few hours or maybe even days, but I believe he will very
quickly completely forget about us, and will not think about us at all ...
until we return and are in his field of vision (or scent, maybe) again,
when he will greet us with joy and recognition and it will very quickly be
as if we never left. I am convinced this is how his mind works.  Could I be
wrong? Sure. But all the evidence seems to suggest that though dogs and
cats clearly do remember their people, they don't sit around pining or
mourning for very long. They live in the moment, with what's right in front
of them.

Don't anthropomorphize your cat into unnecessary feelings of guilt. He's
not a person. He has a brain the size of a garbanzo bean, or maybe a peach
pit. This is NOT to suggest he is any less deserving of compassion than any
other sentient being, but it IS to say his emotional life is not the same
as ours.

In short, Punk will be fine. He'll adjust to his new circumstances within a
few days, and for him it'll very quickly be as if you never existed ... until
you return, at which point it'll very quickly be as if you never left.
(Except that maybe he'll learn to like curling up on your boyfriend's lap.)

All of which is only my opinion of course....

-dz

On Thursday, March 21, 2013, Rebecca Cummings wrote:

> This is a tad embarrassing, but as my trip departure date nears I've begun
> to feel enormous guilt about leaving my cat (Punk) behind.  It's something
> I haven't even allowed myself to worry about until now. I'm only section
> hiking, for about two months, but this will be the first time I've left her
> for so long.  My boyfriend will be caring for her, and she loves him and he
> loves her, but she doesn't curl up in his lap, and sometimes he pets her
> like a dog (I think he's a bit more of a dog person).
>
> No matter how I feel now, I'm going anyway. That is certain. I guess I
> want to know if any of you out there are also leaving behind pets or have
> done so on previous hikes, and how you dealt with it.
>
> Thanks,
> Becky
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-- 
-dz (mobile)