Hypo-allergenic Cats Followup
For those debating the extent to which various breeds are truly hypoallergenic, FYI, you too can own your very own genetically engineered hypoallergenic (at least based on the most common cat allergens) cat (only ~$7000) or leopard (only ~$37,000
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I know everybody has different time-lines for grieving lost pets and does it differently, but I bet these people have done most of their grieving and the shadow is enough of a hook.
I bet it's like in video graphics, you know how once you start making a human face too life-like, people automatically focus on the missing elements and find it creepy? Probably the same pattern-matching is at work here - a shadow, in this case, is better than a clone because people won't expect the pet to be the SAME? So I wonder if, given the chance, those people would want a clone?
I don't think I'd want a similar-colored pet after losing one, unless it was physically dissimilar enough (ie likely no yellow lab following yellow lab) that there was no mistaking them for each other.
No, there are too many dogs needing a home for me to clone one, even one I loved. Not to mention the potential for that effect I hypothesized about above.
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I'm not sure I understand the way you see grieving. I take the strong desire to replace a pet with a copy as close as possible to the original as a sign that grief is still fresh and hasn't been processed. I'd think that if you were done grieving, you'd look for a pet that's a good pet on its own merits.
I don't think I'd want a similar-colored pet after losing one, unless it was physically dissimilar enough (ie likely no yellow lab following yellow lab) that there was no mistaking them for each other.
Yeah, this is how I feel.
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I'm not sure I understand the way you see grieving. I take the strong desire to replace a pet with a copy as close as possible to the original as a sign that grief is still fresh and hasn't been processed. I'd think that if you were done grieving, you'd look for a pet that's a good pet on its own merits.
Probably.
However, I'm just thinking aloud there, guessing and not stating firm convictions - that was why I was wondering if ljedi had any guesstimates of time-lines since pet-death to new adoption for that sub-set of people who wanted one just like the old one. I don't really grok that kind of thinking, so it's not clear to me whether it's simply that the physical resemblance is sort of a comforting reminder of their past pet or what.
You yourself said that they don't care about behavior, so it's not clear that simply wanting a pet that looks like the old one is equivalent to wanting a clone that looks and behaves like the old one.
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I think wanting a clone of your pet is a more extreme example of the same behavior. And it seems to me that it's one doomed to failure. A clone still isn't your pet with a second life. Genetics are only part of the picture. It will inevitably become its own creature.
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Nod. It's an interesting phenomenon.
I do definitely agree that the clone thing doomed to failure for exactly those reasons. It's really sad the mom didn't even seem to see it as a "real dog."
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