I've always been close to animals since I could crawl (always dogs and cats) and I've been raised in a family that loved animals, so I find it hard to live without them really. The problems tend to arrive though when people start anthropomorphising their pets and giving them false personalities that they don't really have, but we've always tried to take them as they are.
I know my rabbit is driven by instinct to eat and survive and all the rest of it, it's not like I expect much is going on between his ears, nor do I expect him to feel anything for me or anything else, but I do laugh when he still rips up newspaper, puts it in his mouth and runs around in circles buzzing. Or when he shows affection by licking me or whatever. It's just nice, there's something special about the purity of animals' emotions and attitudes.
I do consider my cat to be a friend though. We talk a lot, just gibberish but the look in his face shows he's enjoying it and so am I. That sort of interaction goes a bit beyond him just seeking food from me, the provider, though that's often the case. Sometimes he's actually seeking company.
I hope I'm not going to offend anyone but I think on occasion that some people, usually those who love dogs and hate cats (but not in all cases) keep dogs because of a need for someone to show them unconditional loyalty and attention. If you watch them interacting with the dog you might notice they aren't very concerned about what the dog is thinking, they're just projecting their own internal stuff onto the animal, talking for it, giving it a personality and so on. When those people interact with a very aloof, independent animal like a cat then those people don't seem to know what to do, they might even feel threatened and find the animal's emotions/body language difficult to read.
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Topic: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O (Read 14845083 times)