Apropos of nothing, my son said the other day “If Kirby was stuck in a Groundhog Day situation, she wouldn’t be able to communicate that to us.” Kirby is our dog.
Thinking about it for a minute, I said “If Kirby was stuck in a Groundhog Day situation, would she even know?”
(Just in case there are any readers out there unfamiliar with the film, Wikipedia provides a synopsis, with spoilers.)
For some reason, the idea captured my imagination. Kirby’s days are already more or less the same, especially now. She has a feeding and walking schedule that is pretty regular, and we’re all at home the whole day – so, if she repeated a day, would she know? Probably not a single day, but what if it went on for a while? Years. Hundreds of years. Thousands of years. Would she ever get the sense that this was not the natural order of things? Would she ever get bored? Or would she be just as happy walking down up and down the same street and chewing on the same toy several millennia from now as she is today?
I think the dog would learn to anticipate what would happen, and learn the various patterns that are repeated every day. But I don’t think a dog has the cognitive capacity to think “ruff ruff hey I’m living the same day over and over!”
You would see your dog as seeming almost psychic, knowing in advance when anything of interest to it was going to occur as a result of (effectively) years of training exactly when and where specific things were going to occur.
Of course you might say that you already see your dog doing that, sitting there waiting for you when you come home or fetch the food or bring the leash. In which case, can you be certain that you aren’t actually dealing with a bunch of functionally different, separate dogs, each of which has memorized the routine for the specific day that comprises their lives?
My dog Duke would prefer to be stuck in a Groundhog Day loop. He wants every day to be exactly the same, he clearly expresses his disappointment at every change in routine except for additional unscheduled treats.
Every day’s virtually the same for Pluto - eating, pooping, going for walks, racing around his yard, getting belly rubs etc. If every day was identical he’d never notice.
The way my dogs know what times are breakfast, lunch, walks and snacktime - and the way they forcefully communicate those things to me (regardless of time changes) - makes me think they either already in such a situation or would be estatic if they were in such a situation, meaning I would be more compliant.
My God, you’re right! This must be how my cat knows I’m about to take him to the vet before I even stand up to go fetch his carrier. He rarely hides except when I really need him not to. But when we get home, he’s immediately over it and doesn’t hide again. That makes me sad for the cat who has to live the vet day over and over.
My crew somewhat are. They know down to nearly the minute when it’s time to go out in the morning, when breakfast is served, when it’s time for the Jeep ride in the afternoon.
I think dogs and cats would notice. But I’m inclined to suspect more awareness and consciousness and thought than most people seem to think pets have.
So, if you or I were reliving Groundhog Day, could we communicate that to everybody else? Getting the words out and communicating the truth of the matter are hardly the same.
Assuming it was a good day - nice weather, good food to eat, maybe walkies at the park - it would be heaven. Sure, they’d learn patterns and stuff but they’d never ‘realize’ that they were living the exact same day over and over. They’d just have an eternity of sunshine, food, and walkies.