You know how in movies or stories, they use a cloudy and dark sky to describe or symbolizie some sad feelings... Well, it is dark and cloudy now as I'm writing this post. It even makes me more sad that the kittens are now out in our backyard playing among the pots and plants, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they're gonna be seperated very soon. Blackie still showed the same amount of affaction when she saw me this morning, wonder if she knows that after today she won't be seeing 2 of a kittens for the rest of her life...

Yup, we're giving away Coco and Patches. Their new owner will take them away this afternoon...

Yah, I know, anthropomorophism... But I can't help it! Living with cats for so long has made me see alot of my cats, their different personalities, their different ways of expressing emotions, their different habits, likes and dislikes. Each cat is an individual on its on, and it's hard not to see them as just 'anmials'.

Recently my fellow coursemate Mark wrote in the History and Systems in Psychology discussion forum that because we cannot communicate with animals, we can never know if they really do experience the emotions of 'love' and belongingness'. I replied saying that even though we cannot communicate directly with animals, observations by animal researchers have established that animals do experience specific emotions, and describing them in 'human' terms are just convenient ways to understand those emotions. However, this was his reply to that, "We know that animals have similar structures that are associated with emotions but we cannot conclude from that that the psychological phenomenon of emotions is present in animals. Humans have mental representations of the conception of emotions and these can be tapped by communication (asking). Without the ability to communicate these specific conceptual notions to us, animals cannot then be said to have emotions. They might have, but even if they do, since they cannot communicate it to us, we cannot say that they experience emotions the way we as humans experience them. We can even go so far as to say that animals can have the capacity for emotions, but we will never know whether they do have them."

You know, logically and rationally, it's true. But as an animal lover and one who has lived with animals for more than half of my life, it's hard not to think otherwise.

The thing about giving away pets is that worry of whether their new owener wuld treat them well, shower them with the same amount of love and care as when they were with us. Yes, Pearl is a distrustful person, not only distrustful of the people around her but also distrustful ofher own judgement, especially her judgement of people.

There's this description in Chinese that even till now I can't find a proper English translation for. It's 捨不得, something like 'can't bear to let go'. Even my mum, who was the one who insisted on giving the kittens away cos there were too many, last night cuddled each and every one of them, and told them to be good in their new home so that the family will love them and not think of abandoning them. Ha that's my mum, always the 'bad guy' when it comes to the cats, yet you can tell she loves them too.

Yup, hope that Coco and Patches will live a good life in their new home.

Bye bye.