In a past life, I was a Honey Badger, spending my days striking fear into every damn thing in the Kalahari…
now obviously, I couldn’t read the thoughts of the other animals, but if they had one iota of sense, they would’ve worried about their mortality in my presence.
That said, despite my projection of badassery into the habitat around me, in the tender recesses of my soul, I was actually quite an artistic type, carving intricate scenes of inspiring beauty into bits of bark n stuff.
Many was the time when hallucinating after being bitten by yet another cobra that I’d ponder the meaning of my existence and whether it was finite, whilst spinning colourful shapes and strange soothing noises bombarded my limited intellect.
Those were wild times and I’m not sure how I died, but I certainly don’t remember any rocking chairs or thermos flasks.
Seriously though, I would imagine if an animal is getting into old age, then indicators such as loss of teeth, or in the case of the family dog, failing back legs, would trigger some recognition of the limited lifespan of the body…
That said, do animals, and indeed humans, have souls?