Comforting Traumatized Rescue Animals

So good to receive your letter and hats off to you for taking in these lost souls. I would like to hear from more readers about their animals' long-term reaction to severely traumatic events such as tornados, earthquakes and floods.

Your story proves my point that animals have emotions that they can recall. The feelings might surface when they are asleep, causing nightmares. This means that animals must have rich inner emotional lives not unlike our own.

Dear Dr. Fox:

I am curious about whether one of your letter writers, whose cat, Miss Bean, was overweight, was feeding her wet or dry food. Our cat also had a weight problem. I began feeding her organic wet food, and she ate less, was more satisfied and became leaner. This might work with Miss Bean.

-- N.B.