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Comment by steveadoo | Hacker News Reader

I think dogs will do this too.

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.

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

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