All dogs go to heaven but no dogs go to the NYT obituary page
February 22, 2022 11:27 AM Subscribe
Cognitive scientist Alexandra Horowitz, a researcher and author specializing in dog cognition, offers up--not an obituary, but an elegy--to her research subject and beloved family member, Finnegan.
"Obituaries index the values of our culture — and in this culture we have increasingly learned the value of nonhuman life. It is high time that news sources consider the possibility of acknowledging the reality of animal lives alongside our own."
(previously)
"Obituaries index the values of our culture — and in this culture we have increasingly learned the value of nonhuman life. It is high time that news sources consider the possibility of acknowledging the reality of animal lives alongside our own."
(previously)
I took the first few sessions of a class with Prof. Horowitz and then dropped it in favor of one that was more convenient for my schedule. It was a reasonable choice at the time, but remains one of the principal regrets of my college career. This obituary/editorial is both beautiful and provocative.
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posted by mosst at 12:58 PM on February 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
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posted by mosst at 12:58 PM on February 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
"...We named him Finnegan. We found him at a local shelter, in a cage among dozens of cages, in a room among a dozen rooms, all filled with dogs who we could just as easily have taken home. I remember the moment I knew it would be Finnegan. He leaned. Outside of his cage, on the table top where germ carrying humans were allowed to interact with the sick dogs, he wagged, his ears flopped around his tiny face, coughed long bursts of coughs, any lean against my chest, at table height, his face talking to my armpit. Well, that was that."
-From, Inside of a Dog. p. 266-67.
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posted by clavdivs at 2:26 PM on February 22, 2022 [5 favorites]
-From, Inside of a Dog. p. 266-67.
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posted by clavdivs at 2:26 PM on February 22, 2022 [5 favorites]
If anyone knows how to unpaywall this I am very intrigued!
posted by corb at 3:03 PM on February 22, 2022
posted by corb at 3:03 PM on February 22, 2022
Finnegan was scrutable, his desires visible and his affections solid.
posted by y2karl at 3:18 PM on February 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by y2karl at 3:18 PM on February 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
Corb: https://web.archive.org/web/20220221212324/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/21/opinion/dogs-animals-obituaries.html
And I'm firmly in the Will Rogers camp about the afterlife:
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
(One chihuahua currently snoring behind me, one snoring in front of me, one snoring to my right and the fourth snoring at about 2 o'clock because one of them has to break the symmetry, plus her favorite blanket is there and she's still recovering from hernia surgery.)
posted by drewbage1847 at 4:13 PM on February 22, 2022 [6 favorites]
And I'm firmly in the Will Rogers camp about the afterlife:
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
(One chihuahua currently snoring behind me, one snoring in front of me, one snoring to my right and the fourth snoring at about 2 o'clock because one of them has to break the symmetry, plus her favorite blanket is there and she's still recovering from hernia surgery.)
posted by drewbage1847 at 4:13 PM on February 22, 2022 [6 favorites]
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posted by BlackLeotardFront at 5:13 PM on February 22, 2022
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 5:13 PM on February 22, 2022
One of the newspapers that employed me had a rule against listing pets as survivors in obituaries (never mind an obituary of a pet). When that became common knowledge, there was a mild uproar in the newsroom, mostly populated by pet-loving 30-somethings and younger. Many of us declared that we wouldn't want our own obituaries to appear in the paper we worked for if that rule remained in place.
It wasn't long before the rule quietly went away.
posted by bryon at 6:34 PM on February 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
It wasn't long before the rule quietly went away.
posted by bryon at 6:34 PM on February 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
O thank you for sharing this.
I got a tattoo of my dog Anastasia after she died. I was going to add Pippin to my arm but then the pandemic happened. It's maybe not the best idea now that I have rats because if I continue this method of memorialising I will soon run out of skin.
posted by Zumbador at 7:33 PM on February 22, 2022
I got a tattoo of my dog Anastasia after she died. I was going to add Pippin to my arm but then the pandemic happened. It's maybe not the best idea now that I have rats because if I continue this method of memorialising I will soon run out of skin.
posted by Zumbador at 7:33 PM on February 22, 2022
LITTLE DOG’S RHAPSODY IN THE NIGHT
He puts his cheek against mine
and makes small, expressive sounds.
And when I’m awake, or awake enough
he turns upside down, his four paws
in the air
and his eyes dark and fervent.
“Tell me you love me,” he says.
“Tell me again.”
Could there be a sweeter arrangement? Over and over
he gets to ask.
I get to tell.
- Mary Oliver
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 7:50 PM on February 22, 2022 [12 favorites]
He puts his cheek against mine
and makes small, expressive sounds.
And when I’m awake, or awake enough
he turns upside down, his four paws
in the air
and his eyes dark and fervent.
“Tell me you love me,” he says.
“Tell me again.”
Could there be a sweeter arrangement? Over and over
he gets to ask.
I get to tell.
- Mary Oliver
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 7:50 PM on February 22, 2022 [12 favorites]
I saw this post in passing and thought, that looks sweet, but I don't need to read it. Then this morning at the dog run. Scout's owner and Diesel's owner were both talking about it and couldn't believe I passed it over. Then Meijler's owner emailed it to me. Okay, it's really lovely. RIP Finnegan.
Anyway I'm here to say thanks for posting this, even if I didn't read it here and my dog run thinks I'm a heartless charlatan.
posted by Mchelly at 11:42 AM on February 23, 2022
Anyway I'm here to say thanks for posting this, even if I didn't read it here and my dog run thinks I'm a heartless charlatan.
posted by Mchelly at 11:42 AM on February 23, 2022
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Not today.
posted by The Bellman at 11:57 AM on February 22, 2022 [5 favorites]