on heals of do snakes love you

[darkangel]

I feel a bond with all 3 of my dogs, but tightest with my girl, Roxie, the Siberian Husky. She's a snuggler. But only with me. If I'm laying on the couch she'll hop up and be "the inside spoon" to my outside spoon, or stretch out across my stomach. She demands my attention and nuzzles and nudges with my hand until I'm petting her. She howls, only for me, because I think she knows I love the sound of it. She seems so thrilled when I arrive from work.

And to Ginevive, I think that's one of the wonderful things about pets (the ones who are capable of bonding) -- unconditional affection.

[Ginevive]

I'd have to somewhat disagree here... Now I must say I've never kicked my roommate's cat and have not been cruel to him in any way, but I always move him away when he seeks attention from me. I'm severly allergic to him and he sheds like crazy - I've worked in a vet clinic he has to have some sort of disorder because he's a short haired cat but if he's brushed every two days you can actually fill a shopping bag with hair each brushing and the dander that comes off is just crazy - then again he also weighs about 27lbs. My roommate won't let me bath him with dander shampoo because he thinks it will traumatize the cat.

When he comes to me for attention I walk around him, if he comes into my office (which other than our bedroom is the only cat free room) I take him out, when he hops up on the couch with me, I gently put him down. If he goes on his 10 minute long sitting in my door way meowing at me for attention I do get annoyed and drop a bit of water on his head - although typically now I just tell him to shut up then he sits there and stares or goes to meow at someone else... But he still comes to me for attention constantly, and even if every one else is home. And when I get home from work he always runs to the front door and meows a bit and tries for attention.

I'm always gentle with him, but if I spend more than half an hour in a room with him I can't breath and my eyes start to swell up, and once I touch him the hair just kind of sticks everywhere! I'd had cats before both pink and white skinned, they only bothered my allergies for the first month or so... We've had this on going battle for about a year now, and he still loves trying to get attention from me.

Now that's not to say that if I see his food and water empty I don't fill it for him, or that I'm mean to him with my actions, or that on my way by I don't occassionally give him a rub on the head for a couple seconds before thoroughly washing my hands. The only time I think I hurt him was when he managed to trip me down our stairs and that was only because tripping over him "gently" and not trying to do a header at the same time is more difficult than you might imagine!

He came to my roommate a month before he moved in here as a rescue. When he moved in here the cat had yet to come out from under his bed. He would spend all his time under our couch, and got lost in our basement for a month he got up in the ceiling rafters, so when we ripped it apart we had no clue where he was, we could hear him but couldn't find him, then he came down for me while I was doing laundry one day, and he's been upstairs and loving us all ever since. If someone new comes over he still gets a bit skittish and hides for a bit - if they've never been here before typically hides for the entire visit.

But for some reason he still follows me around and wants attention all the time. I think its because he's trying to torture me and that he's actually just really evil.. But who knows, it could be love... Or it could be that I'm the only one with fingernails for a good scratch behind the ears

Actually that sounds like one of my friend's cats. He will eat food right out of your mouth if you let him. You can yell, swat.. he comes right back
I guess that they are all different' Cats were a horrible example for me anyways though because, they are all each so different and quirky.

[Ginevive]

I feel a bond with all 3 of my dogs, but tightest with my girl, Roxie, the Siberian Husky. She's a snuggler. But only with me. If I'm laying on the couch she'll hop up and be "the inside spoon" to my outside spoon, or stretch out across my stomach. She demands my attention and nuzzles and nudges with my hand until I'm petting her. She howls, only for me, because I think she knows I love the sound of it. She seems so thrilled when I arrive from work.

And to Ginevive, I think that's one of the wonderful things about pets (the ones who are capable of bonding) -- unconditional affection.

Sounds like my mom's dogs. Anyone can drive into her driveway and they will bark.. but when it is her, they howl! They know the sound of her car.. but even if she is not in her car, they know it is her anyways.
Animals definately can form telapathic bonds with humans too; I firmly believe this. I was in grade school years back.. something told me to go home for lunch one day. I did, and caught my cat in the middle of swallowing a long coil of string (thinner than clothesline, thicker than yarn.) He would have died, if I had not been there to gently pull it all out of him.. it was disgusting and slimy, but I got about 12 feet of it out of him out the mouth. He needed me that day.

[stangs13]

It is a tough call. To say that animals share the same feelings, thought processes, and capacity to care as people, would upset me. If it were true, I would feel bad about killing animals for food; it would be akin to eating a person, no?
I believe that certain types of animals can be "invested in" and taught to care for and become attached to a certain person or people in general. With many animals, the link to food is what attaches them to humans. Take my friend's geese. They dislike people and run away from you, bu if you toss out some grain, they run up to you and will even follow you around if they know you have food. Same with my chickens.
Mammals are different though. To me, they seem to posess a greater capacity to bond to humans and care about us in general. My cat is attached to me; he sleeps right by my head, and when I am home he is my shadow. Is this love, or is he waiting for me to get him a kitty treat? If I started kicking him around and tossing him away when he nuzzled my feet, over and over, would he still be attached to me? No, he would learn that humans are bad, and be gone when he saw one. Take the complex facets of human love though. A mother will sometimes love er son or daugher even after they have been proven to have committed a serious crime. Yet does the person's dog have the ability to reasno and know that their owner, say, is an arsonist? No.. it is different and based on the animal's capacity of intelligence (a dog is, say, more intelligent and reasonable than a slug; more evolved..)

That is actualy what I wanted to say, but I couldn't put it into words. Thanks alot Jen! I tottaly agree. I do tell all my animals no, alot, but they do comeback. So its a so so response.


Now telapathicly bonded? I don't think so so much, me and my pup understand what we each want, etc. We feed off of each other. But I don't think it was your cat saying that she needs help, to make your go home. I think it was a feeling. Catch my drift?