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What Your Pet is Thinking
Wall Street Journal ^ | 27 October 2006 | SHARON BEGLEY

Posted on 10/28/2006 2:29:38 PM PDT by shrinkermd

From the day they brought her home, the D'Avellas' black-and-white mutt loathed ringing phones. At the first trill, Jay Dee would bolt from the room and howl until someone picked up. But within a few weeks, the D'Avellas began missing calls: When the phone rang, their friends later told them, someone would pick up and then the line would go dead.

One evening, Aida D'Avella solved the mystery. Sitting in the family room of her Newark, N.J., home, Ms. D'Avella got up as the phone rang, but the dog beat her to it. Jay Dee ran straight to the ringing phone, lifted the receiver off the hook in her jaws, replaced it and returned contentedly to her spot on the rug

...Ethologists, the scientists who study animal behavior, have amassed thousands of studies showing that animals can count, understand cause and effect, form abstractions, solve problems, use tools and even deceive. But lately scientists have gone a step further: Researchers around the world are providing tantalizing evidence that animals not only learn and remember but that they may also have consciousness -- in other words, they may be capable of thinking about their thoughts and knowing that they know.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: doggieping; eat; kittyping; napl; pee; pets; poo; sleep; think
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"...The trouble is that all sorts of animals -- from those in the African bush to those in your living room -- keep acting as if they truly do have emotions remarkably like humans'. Last month, Ya Ya, a panda in a Chinese zoo, accidentally crushed her newborn to death. She seemed inconsolable -- wailing and frantically searching for the tiny body. The keeper said that when he called her name, she just looked up at him with tear-filled eyes before lowering her head again. The conventional view is that these were instinctive, reflexive reactions, and that Ya Ya didn't know she was sad. As the evidence for animal consciousness piles up, that view becomes harder to support.
1 posted on 10/28/2006 2:29:39 PM PDT by shrinkermd
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To: shrinkermd

But donkeys don't think do they?


2 posted on 10/28/2006 2:31:18 PM PDT by mathprof
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To: shrinkermd

The reactions of animals are fascinating.


3 posted on 10/28/2006 2:32:56 PM PDT by TBP
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To: mathprof

Bacon, bacon, bacon......bacon, bacon, bacon......bacon, bacon....gotta pee gotta pee, gotta pee....what's that smell?, ooh, whats THAT smell? Gotta dump, Gotta dump, gotta dump...what's that noise? bark bark.....what's that smell?.....get the picture?


4 posted on 10/28/2006 2:33:49 PM PDT by Gaffer
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To: mathprof; K4Harty
I don't know about donkeys, but I know what my pug is thinking.

L

5 posted on 10/28/2006 2:34:41 PM PDT by Lurker (“A liberal thinks they can sleep in, and someone will cover their lame ass.”)
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To: shrinkermd

consciousness -- in other words, they may be capable of thinking about their thoughts and knowing that they know.

Something that can't be said for liberals, they only have feelings.


6 posted on 10/28/2006 2:35:27 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: shrinkermd

The guy who mows our lawn had to sell his farm and start a landscaping service. He says that when he had the farm he knew all his milk cows by name.

Once he visited the farm he sold them to. He spotted one of his cows, went up to her and called her by name.

He says they both stood their crying.


7 posted on 10/28/2006 2:36:30 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: mathprof

Mr. Baybuh barked at prime numbers and was bent on solving Pi.


8 posted on 10/28/2006 2:36:41 PM PDT by battlegearboat
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To: shrinkermd
Why am I not buying into "The Dog hung-up on you Not me" story?
9 posted on 10/28/2006 2:37:34 PM PDT by divine_moment_of_facts
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To: shrinkermd

"Thinking about their thoughts?" No, I don't think so.


10 posted on 10/28/2006 2:38:53 PM PDT by Continental Soldier
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To: mathprof

"But donkeys don't think do they?"

Chesterton thought they did. Fr. Neuhaus just quoted one of his series of animal poems in First Things this past week.

It's a great poem:

THE DONKEY

by: G.K. Chesterton

WHEN fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born;

With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil's walking parody
On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.


11 posted on 10/28/2006 2:40:03 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: divine_moment_of_facts

Very useful dog. He also ate the kid's homework.


12 posted on 10/28/2006 2:40:34 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Lurker
I love that website, and that pic. Also, tagline bump.

Thanks for the pug-ping

13 posted on 10/28/2006 2:40:59 PM PDT by IllumiNaughtyByNature (If a pug barks and no one is around to hear it... they hold a grudge for a long time!)
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To: shrinkermd

This kind of thinking is exactly why I have the "2 cat" rule when it comes to dating women. Any woman who has 2 or more cats is thinking way too much about what their cats are thinking.


14 posted on 10/28/2006 2:41:30 PM PDT by Rockitz (This isn't rocket science- Follow the money and you'll find the truth.)
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To: shrinkermd

Dogs are damn smart - some breeds more than others, but all can and do learn our "ways" and play them for all they are worth! lol


15 posted on 10/28/2006 2:41:41 PM PDT by Continental Soldier
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To: TBP

yes--and i really believe this about our two border collie mixes... gosh, those doggies are smart... and even manipulative... they amaze us all the time... they think they're people...


16 posted on 10/28/2006 2:42:52 PM PDT by latina4dubya
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To: mathprof
But donkeys don't think do they?

It's jackasses that don't think, but then they display contradictory traits. For instance, although they don't think, they are self aware, but ONLY self aware, they NEVER think of others. Yet, when it comes to work or taxes they ONLY think of others, after all they will be responsible for neither.

17 posted on 10/28/2006 2:43:41 PM PDT by Navy Patriot
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To: K4Harty
You're the one who first made me aware of that website. For that I am in your debt.

They've gotten more than just a few of Clan Lurkers hard earned cash.

L

18 posted on 10/28/2006 2:44:55 PM PDT by Lurker (“A liberal thinks they can sleep in, and someone will cover their lame ass.”)
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To: shrinkermd

Thats funny our dog answers the phone too..

We found out when several people told us they called and the dog answered


19 posted on 10/28/2006 2:47:21 PM PDT by vigilante2 (Thank You Veterans)
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To: Lurker
LOL! glad to point you in that direction. My wife wants to get me the pillow that says I spoon with my pug, but I vetoed that vote.
20 posted on 10/28/2006 2:47:30 PM PDT by IllumiNaughtyByNature (If a pug barks and no one is around to hear it... they hold a grudge for a long time!)
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