Friends with Benefits

This picture is of Brownie and Sammy, two of the wonderful dogs we had when the girls were little. This brings to mind a recent "Time" magazine that had an extremely interesting article on animal friendships. On the cover were two dogs - a gigantic bloodhound (I'm not sure about that) and a tiny chihuahua). I'm not sure about that either. The little one was sitting between the two front feet of the sitting bigger dog. I loved the cover but that didn't stop me from reading the inside articles, especially the one about Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti. Jon Stewart of the "Daily Show" made fun of the cover and other "Time" covers for not being tough enough. But Jon makes fun of everyone. There is enough hard news inside "Time" that it's nice to see something else on the cover. I certainly wouldn't have been drawn to it with Mario's picture on it!

I found the article fascinating. We have always thought we were the only ones who could feel love, loyalty, compassion and have the ability to make long-term relationships with friends. Animal friendship is about long-time bonds of sharing, sacrificing and grieving. Baboons, who are closely related to us, showed the strongest bonds were between unrelated females which lasted for years. Biologists always explained the social behavior between unrelated animals  as reciprocal altruism - a favor-for-favor arrangement which usually happened between males.

During this study, they found many cases of cross-species friends. The article mentions one specifically about Mzee the tortoise and Owen the hippo. Owen was found when he was 1 year old and dehydrated. He was placed in a wildlife sanctuary with the 130 year old Mzee. They became inseparable and went everyplace together. They went for walks together, each one telling the other where to go by nudging him in a certain way. I love that!

The study doesn't rank dogs very high for friendships. They are friends with other dogs in the same household, and thanks to domestication, they are capable of being sweet and loyal to humans. They say that dogs evolved from wolves and sweet doesn't go well with wolves. Dogs treat us more as guardians than friends. But they're still warm and wonderful company for us. I wonder if the author of this ever had a dog . . . probably not.

Studies were done on other animals and it was found that friendships made for healthier animals . . . and people. When domesticated horses groomed one another, their heart rate slowed. This just shows what has been found that people with close social networks have lower blood pressure, lower levels of stress hormones and better immune systems than those without. I don't know about grooming one another. . . although I love having my hair brushed. I guess animals and people aren't that much different. Friends are extremely important for our happiness and health. Friends with benefits is alive and well among all humans and animals, and the benefits are enormous.