02-08-2018, 07:02 PM
I grit my teeth when someone tells me I am 'anthropomorphizing' animals when I ascribe complex emotion or thought to them, but there's no scientific reason to assert humans alone possess thought or emotion, and I have witnessed several instances that establish, to me, that complex thought and emotion are not unique to humans, that other species do more than act on pure selfish instinct.
I worked at a dog kennel, for instance -- and, no, I did not take liberties -- and the owner of the kennel had dogs of her own, including a female Newfoundland and a big male Leonberger mix whom really loved the Newfoundland. It wasn't just a selfish love, not just wanting to get his rocks off, but a deeper love ... he enjoyed receiving scritches and attention from me, but he would also pull me over to the Newfoundland to get me to give her scritches and attention.
My own late German Shepherd lover actually invented games to play with me. I like to kneel down to a dog's level to give them attention, and my Shep took advantage of this by pulling the glasses off my face with her teeth, just holding them -- not biting them. She quickly ran off to the far end of the yard, holding my glasses, and turned and looked back at me, wagging -- she wanted me to chase her!
