I received these two comments today, and I’m posting them here for the purpose of sharing. Please note that the (anonymous) person who posted the comments told me that he/she is not a vet.
Animals can and do have a great capacity to feel, especially the love and gratefulness part (much more than many, many 2-leggeds). And they also have a feeling of trust and loyalty. But they do not hold grudges or take revenge. They only act in self defense for fear of harm.
The above is what makes them our best friends!!
Not humanising them simply means we must understand they do not have our 3rd lobe of the brain for reason and logic. They have the other 2 lobes that we humans have.
However they are able to connect incidents which enables them to be trained.
Example, when they knock over the garbage bin, it makes a big sound and the owner always appear out of nowhere like a giant with a red, angry face. That is why every time that garbage bin falls over with a huge bang, the furball runs away, it expects to see the owner’s red angry face.
Or each time the owner appears and reaches for the kibble jar, rattling it before scooping the goodies on to their dish, those smart alecs connect your appearance, the sound of kibbles in the jar with “yummies coming!” and they meow in harmony like a well rehearsed orchestra!
Not all vets are familiar about animal behaviour, just like not all doctors are familiar with human psychology. It is another specialised area. It takes an animal behaviourist to understand animal behavior. And it takes a cat behaviourist to understand cat behaviour because animals are different. For example, cats behave differently from dogs because cats are not pack animals while dogs are. And then prey animals behave differently from predator animals. Cats are belong to the group of animals which are both predator (towards smaller animals like rats) and prey (by larger animals like wolves and dogs). Also, the physiology of a cat is different from that of a dog in that a cat is an ultimate carnivore with different dietary needs compared with for example, a dog which is omnivore. One more thing is the toxicity of certain foods and medication which are alright with dogs but not okay for the cats.
And sadly, not all vets are informed about all these details. They just get about treating the animals with what they learnt in vet school ….