Losing animals is heartbreaking. It's the bad side of homesteading (for me) Having so many animals you also face greater loss. And I also see how the rest of the "Tribe" grieve - be they goat, dog, cat or human. May ABBA comfort you and the little creatures
Have you had creatures that showed their grief to you?
Well I definitely have noticed changed behaviour and distress with my cats and dogs. But my flock of goats all express themselves in a different way. Some of them really suffer, literally cry for days. It's heartbreaking. The first time it happened I only had 3 goats and two, the mother and daughter died very suddenly of bloat. The third was highly pregnant and cried for them for weeks until her baby was born. I didn't know what to do with her. When we lost our dairy cow to heat stroke her biological calf as well as her adopted calves (all half grown) mooed and ran around the field for a couple days. If you read Josephus he tells of Adam talking to the animals. And it was after the Fall that we could no longer understand their language. I don't believe this is a simple fictional embellishment
I agree it is not fictional, maybe it comes from us working and trying harder to be good stewards to our flocks so we can know when things trouble them.
Proverbs tell us to know well the state of our flocks....