My dogs love to be groomed, which is really funny since the small one who came to us seven years ago as a stray has really short hair but you try and leave her out of a brush when she sees the collie being groomed. They both raise their heads and often I have seen a bluish tint come into a dog’s eyes as they are brushed. I have always assumed that is the moment when they feel that frisson we all feel when someone does something for us, that delicious tingle on the skin that someone cares enough to make our lives a little smoother.
And humans love to be groomed, it is one of the perks of being rich to ‘be dressed’ by someone else and have choices made that fit the bill so much so that there are morning, afternoon and evening clothes both so one is always clean and so one can enjoy the feeling three times a day.
It’s the same kind of feeling one gets when one is told someone has been thinking about us, or shows concern. At once an affirmation of one’s existence and a surprise. Sometimes only ruined when the person gets shampoo in your eyes. But it is interesting that mammals all feel this sense, and touch and groom each other in their groups with even deer eating flies and flees of each other’s backs.
The senses are the fundamentals of relationships.