Like other forms of contagion, semantic contagion related to companion animals may have positive or negative results. Think of it as comparable to going viral on social media. Ideally we hope any information these reports include is reliable, but…
Like members of many animal species, we humans possess two related traits that can get us into trouble when it comes to companion animals or animals that we want to be our companion animals. One is a desire for attention from other people The second is an attraction for novelty. Neither is good nor bad in and of themselves. However both can get us and any animal we imposed them on into trouble if we allow these to interfere with our selection of a pet.
Our brains evolved to do many things. So make pet-selection a whole-brain activity– because the only thing sadder than a rescue with a sad story is a rescuer unprepared to meet all that animals’ physical and behavioral needs.
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