Education is the key, I guess; but I’m not holding my breath for that one…!
I can only try to keep my mind open to all the other things I don’t understand.

Anyway, in regards to animals, this does confuse me too, I think I’ve mentioned it in the comments before. I know I specifically spent a lot of time around cats growing up and even though it’s been a while, I still have an awareness that most people don’t. It’s frustrating to me when it’s so obvious what the cat means and people just don’t get it. It’s even more frustrating when I just don’t get what the cat is feeling or trying communicate. It feels like a big failure on my part. But assuming that just because I’m not able to perceive those things that the actions and expressions are senseless… THAT’S the senseless thing. It’s not logical at all.

It’s like that annoying “self-awareness” test that is geared toward human thought processes, so animals that think in a manner that’s at least somewhat similar to us and do a lot of visual processing pass the test while animals who are less visual, and perhaps further removed from us in terms of how they think, are less likely to pass the test. I find it difficult to accept that this is truly an objective test that demonstrates self-awareness. Rather, it strikes me as a test that demonstrates one particular kind of self-awareness.

Speaking of that test, I remember your post about your cat using mirrors to make eye contact with people. I loved that just for demonstrating that cats can and do use mirrors.

There are all sorts of myths about dogs that sell them short emotionally and intellectually.
One such myth is that “dogs can’t tell time”. Tell that to our dog Daisy who worridly herds us into the kitchen if dinner gets delayed past a certain time. This isn’t hunger on her part as she has food available 24/7. She also lets us know on Sunday and Wednesday evenings that her ear medicine is due.

I know our dogs worlds are richer in sound and smells then ours. They surely hate to leave us alone as they know we can’t hear or smell a darn thing. They are always alerting us to approaching animals we are not yet aware are nearby . I sometimes think one of our dogs anticipates our moods and needs before we actually are aware of them so I know they have a key sense of body positions and possibly even to smells that go with emotion. Their world has many more layers of smell…I have seen how Daisy goes out to smell where animals have walked the night before and put it into no doubt a directory of smells that lets her know by scent how long ago something passed by. There is so much we don’t now yet….

I think one of the things that fascinates me is when animals reach across species to communicate. We had an orphaned squirrel once run up my pant leg and shirt and huddle on my shoulder…I imagine it saw I moved…and it’s mother had moved before she suddenly wasn’t there any more…and it was hungry…and thought like it’s mother I might supply food. I did. I also found it a home in the backyard of a rehabilitator who had other squirrels there and got orphan Annie back into the wild when she was older and ready.

I like watching the interaction of Daisy our dog with Erysimum, the cat with whom she was raised. They touch noses to say hello….cat language…..and cat marks dog as her own….but cat also uses dog language when she things appropriate like when she stretches out to say she wants to play. Or is that cat language too? They have a special bond.

I think we have a lot to learn from other animals and much can be learned by observation.
I feel lucky to have ours in our lives….