Love, loss and animals: a posthumanist account of dementia in multi- species kinship

It can be argued that all love is partial. We come to know those we love through our own lens, which filters our perceptions and feelings. But what happens when additional filters are applied, and how does that further render partial our relationships with those we love? What happens when we speak a different language to those we love, when species differences are involved, or cognitive decline? With regard to the latter, canine dementia is manifest through behavioural changes in older dogs such as disorientation, changes in activity and different interactions with those around them, altered sleeping patterns, and house- soiling (Landsberg et al, 2012). In this chapter we explore our relationships with three dogs we have loved: for Elizabeth, Bramble; for Damien, Willy; and for Nik, Squirt (Gillespie, 2022). While, as we discuss in this chapter, each of these relationships is distinct, what unites them is our human experience of living with a canine loved one who has dementia and, further, a loved one who others might not recognise as worthy of love and/ or might undervalue the love we have for them. What also connects us as authors, as we explicate in what follows, is a commitment to finding ways to witness the voices of the animals we have loved. In this sense we offer a posthumanist account of our experiences of living with a dog with dementia. ..