What animals know of death

Animals are weird. Or at least they just don't understand things the same way we do. Or something. Anyway, when our cat Weasel died a couple years ago, it seemed like none of the other cats or dogs even noticed. Weasel was just laying there dead on the kitchen floor since about 2am (I'm pretty sure) and everybody was walking around him like it was nothing but a thing.

When Nutty died, one cat, Frankie, seemed to notice. She stayed with us during the last hour when we had Nutty on the couch and were petting and speaking to him, and not in the way of all the animals every other time of "hey, if you're giving out lovin' you should be giving it to mememe." She just sat there with us and looked down at Nutty from the top of the couch.

We took the dogs out to the place where Nutty was buried. For a time, we had Nutty's body wrapped up in cloth and set him on a table under an open tent while we attended to various matters. Dennis sat vigil in front of the table the whole time, facing out the tent entrance with his back to Nutty. I've never seen Dennis just sit down outside before, he only sits when a treat is in the offing. After we buried Nutty and walked away, Abby just sat there for several minutes at the head of the grave, looking off into space. I've never seen that sitting from Abby either, especially when we are walking away, she would always want to be following right behind us.

Then we came home and Abby and Dennis ran around acting all confused, like, "I smell Nutty but where the heck is he?"

Animals are weird.