They each have their own personality and no amount of keepsakes preserve that; not even, eventually, our memories. First the pain is the feeling of injustice, because we know there's no such thing (there's just us); then it's that we lose even the memory beyond a few vague impressions. Memory just isn't that good. Even mum and dad are little more than vague, as 2 dimensional as a photograph, with recollections like a handful of set pieces, like anecdotes in an obituary, cherished against the feeling of guilt in forgetting, which is inevitable and we can do nothing about. The other animals briefly hurt because lost attachments leave a gulf, but we're so clever we try to blame ourselves for moving on. Death of higher animals is the disappearance of personality. What we remember, quite apart from the fact memory morphs, though we rarely and possibly never realise it, is like a biographical movie script - known facts padded out with fictional approximation, as satisfying as its artistic veracity. Eventually when we remember them, we remember photographs.
You sound crackers to me Think I have to much time on my hands today Back to thread moonpig, as I say to much time today
