“A woman habitually sits where she used to stroke her dog softly. The entire house felt quiet. The corner of her living room was warming with the flood of afternoon sunshine. She inhaled the vape. A few minutes passed, she slowly infiltrated into the mood of her dog’s emotions; Happiness, relaxation, and being loved. As dozing off, a woman felt a gentle petting on her back that feels like being cared about. They have fallen apart but still together.”
Smoking vape to overcome depression is an artefacts from the future of careful entanglements between human and companion species.
In John Berger's Why look at animals, the animal images in modern society stand for a lost relationship with animals that were once direct and unmediated. And companion animals constitute an integral part of the daily lives of humans. Being a companion comes with an ambiguous care. It adds a layer to a concept of more than human modes of care.
Care is required in processes in which humans and nonhumans co-train each other to live, work, and play together to construct a relationship of “significant otherness.” Haraway’s stories about the relations of dogs with humans show that livable relating requires particular care, especially when one of the involved beings depends mostly on the other to survive.
What would it be to feel like a dog?
How do dogs feel empathy for humans?
What if human can feel dog’s emotions?
How can ethics of care be more tangible in this relationship?
Allowing other senses to take over while rethinking the way we engage with our surroundings might help re-connect to the species that live alongside us. Caring for non-human species in more mindful ways asks us to question things we take for granted; our everyday life, the way we eat, listen, smell, and the way we perceive the world.
