When little Yimi trotted up to the Refugio with his bosses he was a happy little dog. Bright eyed, tail wagging, looking up at his boss with love and devotion. He was a little reluctant to stay with us but he didn't make a fuss. His bosses would come and collect him very soon. They would come back.
Fast forward a couple of hours. Yimi is in our quarantine section. Where were his bosses? That was when it hit him - they weren't coming back. All that trust, destroyed. Poor Yimi was distraught but he didn't howl or bark. He just - stopped. He wouldn't lie down, he wouldn't eat, he wouldn't drink.
Fabienne sat and talked to him, stroked him, cuddled him. One by one everyone tried to comfort him. Nothing worked. Tempting pieces of chicken and treats. No. Water. No. It got so bad he had to have a drip in his paw. And all the time he stood resolutely, staring out through the bars refusing to move.
He went to stay with Ellen, a loving foster mother who took the greatest care of him; the following morning he eat two biscuits and drank a little. There was hope. A few days later Fabienne said in her diary that if Yimi could only know how many people were thinking of him he would immediately start to eat.
He had a few wonderful weeks with good care and lots of love from his foster mama, Ellen, and everyone concerned. We can be thankful for that, that he knew that love. But sadly, despite the superhuman efforts of all these devoted people, little Yimi died. Barely three weeks after his boss abandoned him, he gave up. It was too much for him, his heart had been broken. So desperately sad. So cruel and unnecessary.
Those of us who love and respect animals are in no doubt as to the degree to which they feel emotion. In her diary, Fabienne wrote of her 14 years experience with over 15,000 dogs passing through the Refugio and of other dogs she'd known, like Yimi, who simply didn't want to go on and died of grief. She spoke of her beloved Max and Dirk's Tineke who wait anxiously for their return, Max not eating until she's back, little Tineke waiting motionless at the door.
And now there is scientific proof to back up what we all know. Gregory Burns, a professor of neuroeconomics in Georgia has shown that dogs use the same part of the brain to 'feel' as humans do. To achieve these results a group of clever dogs were trained to stay perfectly still while they underwent an MRI scan. The tests point to the probability that dogs have a level of sentience similar to that of a human child.
There is currently a television series running in the UK called 'Dogs: Their Secret Lives', which also demonstrates graphically how deep and real their emotions are.
A happy dog, full of trust
Why have they gone away and left me?
Yimi on the right. Sadly his heart was too badly broken.
R.I.P Sweet Yimi.
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