How well do tegus read emotion?

[mduke3]

Yesterday morning I had to put down my beloved basset hound due to cancer. I was an emotional wreck the whole day, and surprisingly, when I went to get out Ellie, she came up to me and put her head into my hands, let my scratch her neck for a long time, and then calmly crawled up my arm. The rest of the day she stayed very close to me. Now Ellie is not the attention-seeking tegu, and never has been since I've had her. She is very independent and will only tolerate being held/handled. It seemed out of the ordinary and got me thinking if tegus can read human emotions like other animals can, and act off of that, or maybe this was just a random act of kindness from her? Lol.
What are your thoughts?

 

[elmo]

ive had a few discussions about tegus ability to love on this and other tegu sites. often people say that they used to us and its not love blah blah blah.. i think tegus can love thus they care and have empathy of us, not many will agree but i think yr tegu knew u were having a bad day...

 

[laurarfl]

I'm so sorry to hear about you basset. That is such a hard decision to make. I don't know how much tegus read into our emotions, but it sure made a nice gesture for you.

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

My condolences for your loss. Losing something or someone we love is never easy, or something we get over. In time we just learn to accept and deal with it.

With most animals it's usually more about chemicals like hormones / pheromones and body language more so than emotion. Besides the chemical changes our bodies go through when happy, sad, scared, stressed or what ever, there's also the physical where we may be more relaxed or more tense because of a situation and animals pick up on that.

 

[Aardbark]

I have hear stories like this before, where it seems like a tegu is comforting its owner when they are very sad. I personaly choose to believe that they can show that kind of emotion. Even with something like when a stranger comes into my room, my tegu will run to me for safety.