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Comment by dboreham | Hacker News Reader

Even cats aren't only in it for the food.

Although they will eat you if you die and they have access to your corpse..

I have two cats. My two year old maine coon is the most playful, intelligent cat I have ever met, and he knows when I'm sad. He runs to the door when I come home (and then pretends that he wasn't actually there to see me). The only time he wants food is when I take it out of the cupboard. Yes, he's manipulative, but he's so god-damned smart about it, even I get tricked. He mostly manipulates the other cat to leave the room so that he can get more attention.

I think cats get way more flak than is deserved. My friend has a very intelligent Siberian. When that fucking cat looks at you, you know it can see into your fucking soul, I don't know how to describe it. And the way they play with lasers, it's amazing how quick they are. I mean, they know it's just a laser, but they put all their skills into hunting it down.

I think dogs will do this too.

I'm done with it, what do I care?

Although it is more traumatic for whoever has to deal with the body.

It's traumatic for the dog, too. Often, when someone with a dog is found dead, the dog will have bitten (or eaten) their face, in the hopes of waking up their owner.

> The dogs start biting and eating as a form of animal instinct. They notice you’re dead by your smell and lack of reaction, and they come and lick the unclothed areas to wake you up. If you’re dead and there’s no reaction, they switch and enter the next level—from licking to biting. That’s all. It is not a matter of hunger.

Quite sad, really.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21533604

But there is also the possibility that your dog will guard your corpse and not let strangers or other animals near it (like Talero). And a lesser possibility that your dog will guard your grave until it dies [0].

Cats? They'll sit on your corpse to interview servants to replace you.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greyfriars_Bobby

Curiously I went to school around the corner from the Greyfriars church yard and must have walked past the statue thousands of times. I noticed that the statue has been defaced in recent years by tourists touching its nose for good luck.

You know what, I might too if that was the only edible thing I could reach in a long-enough timeframe.

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