Wednesday, April 27, 2011

A Kindred Spirit?

Or do I just turn everything into something about me and TTC?

Just kidding.

Kind of.

I visited the zoo today with some co-workers (for all the crap that's been happening with my company lately, we do still have some pretty cool perks like taking three paid hours off to spend with our teams--I'm a team leader with a team of three--or on our own if we choose; my team and I have been trying to make it to the zoo for a couple of months). While watching the lions (a male and female), one of my team members says (about the lioness), "She still doesn't look pregnant."

An odd sort of comment, so someone else asks if she is pregnant.

Come to find out, no, she wasn't but they've been trying to get her pregnant since February of 2010.

Now, where does my mind go? Aww, she's like me.

This particular lioness, I believe, had had cubs before, but they were trying to get her and her mate to have more. For over a year she's been unsuccessful.

It was just sort of an interesting thing to hear. It never occurred to me that humans were not the only ones who would deal with IF. So, now, I'm wondering, are we?

It could be that this lioness, having already had cubs previously, was past her prime. But, what if she has some sort of secondary IF?

Anyway, I felt for her. I don't believe she goes through the same type of pain and heartache that humans do when not getting pregnant, but maybe she does in her own way. In the animal kingdom, I think mothering instincts and simply bearing offspring may be even more natural and important than with humans. Humans have other things going on in their lives--work, other family, hobbies. Animals are hunters and breeders.

So, what happens to them if they don't breed?

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