Empathy.

A true story involving a lion, a tiger and bear caused me to wonder at the scope of emotional ties that can develop between creatures of different origins. The story starts when the animals were found held in a basement and the three animals were young. They had been kept in tiny cages and were infested with fleas. After being treated by a vet, they were rehomed in an open animal park. What became very interesting was that the same three animals displayed a mutual friendship. Playing and grooming each other with what appeared to be affection, the animals behaved as a collective unit. Eventually, the lion developed an incurable medical condition and passed away. The park staff had a life sized statue made of the lion, as the three animals had become an example of a diverse and firm unit of friends. The animals had shown distress when separated from each other. Even now, the tiger is noted to regularly muzzle the statue of the lion, much as it had done in the past with the living lion.

There are many true instances whereupon a maternal instinct has confounded supposed or presumed outcomes. There are quite a few examples of when a mother animal will care and feed a different species, even human babies have been fostered in this way. One such case was when a very young lost boy was found and reared by some wolves. Although when he grew older, there was an attempt to separate him from the wolves, he found it very hard to lose that contact with his wolf upbringing and adapt to human behaviour.

Another astonishing tale involves a wildlife park keeper who had the opportunity to observe when his domestic cat had just given birth to some kittens and simultaneously made a fantastic foster mother to a pair of tiger cubs, who had lost their own birth mother.

Certain people have a natural way of bonding and communicating empathy, enabling a sense of trust. It is this kind of interaction that can improve relations, feelings of loneliness or relax a tense situation.

I think that the quality of empathy can bridge so many barriers. Empathy has in many categories and different subjects, astounded and enhanced concepts, in fact it has been indicated to have strengthened life in many ways. Empathy can be a profound example of what is possible and yet not known or assumed as so, it can be startling, anticipated or a means for broaching contrasting scenarios. It has provided a way to glean insight and attainment and perhaps the best part of empathy can be found in how widely the attributes can range.