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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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To: Phsstpok

When a dog licks you it's kissing you.

When a cat licks you it's tasting you.


61 posted on 10/28/2006 6:08:13 PM PDT by Dinsdale
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To: shrinkermd

Our cat 'Fluff'attempts to knock the phone off the hook when the answering machine goes off. We have taken to hiding the handset when we leave the house.

Fifteen years ago we had a cat 'Tuffy' who learned how to ring the doorbell when she wanted to come in the house. We put up with this for about a week -- she then became an indoor cat.


62 posted on 10/28/2006 6:10:10 PM PDT by Tarheel (The checkered kaffiyeh--the swastika of the 21st century.)
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To: Lady Jag

I'm sorry, did I say donkey?.....I meant 'jackass'.


63 posted on 10/28/2006 6:11:41 PM PDT by He Rides A White Horse (Unite)
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To: nmh; Cicero

I was watching a cat for someone who never came back to pick it up. We basically shared a space for a couple of years.

I had an accident and after a stay in the hospital with a broken leg, etc. I made it back home.

I immediately went to bed and after staring at me for a while the cat jumped up into the bed and tucked in right beside me - something the cat had *never* ever done before.

Once I was asleep the cat got up, walked to the bottom of the bed and sniffed my broken leg from my toes up to wherever. The cat sniffed for a long time and then came back - to the other side - and cuddled up.

I don't think the cat had ever cuddled up before in its life. The cat seemed to know that something was very wrong.


64 posted on 10/28/2006 6:21:48 PM PDT by ladyjane
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To: ladyjane

Cats seem to figure a lot of things out that we think they shouldn't be able to. I used to have a cat that was smart enough to hit the power button on my Mac II, wait for it to come up, bat the mouse down until it went into one of the screen saver hot corners, and would sit and watch the fish screen saver. Somewhere I have a videotape of this - I kept trying to figure out why I'd leave with the Mac turned off and come back to it turned on.

My current cat has figured out how to unlock my front door. (!)


65 posted on 10/28/2006 6:32:04 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Phsstpok

That depends. Are you treating the cats as retarded dependents, or as adult people?

My cat attacks solicitors, but not normal visitors or neighbors. Still trying to figure out how he knows who's who.


66 posted on 10/28/2006 6:34:45 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: madison10

My daughter and son in law had a flock of chickens, and a rooster. The rooster started to get full of himself and started going after the grandchildren. My son-in-law didn't want to wring its neck and eat it, so he put it in the car, drove a few miles, and left it by the side of the road.

Then the next day he had an attack of conscience. Suppose the rooster starved? So he put a pail of feed in the trunk and drove back to where he had left the rooster. He found a pickup truck and a couple of guys saying, "Looks like somebody left this rooster here!" So he turned around and drove off. I imagine the rooster went into somebody's pot.

Or if it was lucky, maybe it has a coop full of hens to lord over.


67 posted on 10/28/2006 6:39:54 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: shrinkermd
Image and video hosting by TinyPic
B-o-R-I-n-G....

68 posted on 10/28/2006 6:44:15 PM PDT by Fawn
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To: Psalm 73

The real difference between cats and dogs:

Provide everything a dog needs: Food, housing, water, toys, medical care...just everything...and the dog looks at you and thinks "Wow! You must be God!"

Do the exact same things for a cat, and he will one day look at you and think "Wow! I must be God!"


69 posted on 10/28/2006 6:44:48 PM PDT by Nik Naym
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To: AnAmericanMother
I'll believe the dog did it before I'll believe a cat did anything intelligent. ;)

The fur is going to fly now.. I just feel it! LOL!
70 posted on 10/28/2006 6:48:11 PM PDT by divine_moment_of_facts
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To: Spktyr
Are you treating the cats as retarded dependents, or as adult people?

I don't treat them like people because they aren't, adult or otherwise. 

I do treat them as independent contractors, if you will.  I provide them a place to hang out (particularly in bad weather) and even provide some food in exchange for them cleaning out annoying rodents and the like from around our house.  The mole population in our neighborhood is seriously endangered by my little hit squad.  I insist, however, that they don't bring their work inside with them.  That's one of my battles with them.  I know they're often wanting to present me a trophy and I praise them for it, but outside the window, not inside. 

I also try to mediate when they get into fights, mostly by asserting myself as the alpha male in the household.  So far that works, but one of these days... 

71 posted on 10/28/2006 6:50:16 PM PDT by Phsstpok (Often wrong, but never in doubt)
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To: latina4dubya
Border collies ARE very smart. Reputedly, they are the smartest.

But pound for pound, my Dobies are the smartest animals I have ever owned. They psyche things out. . .

The Old Girl, when she wants a spot on the sofa, presently taken by others. . .will create a Barking Opportunity.

The young sprouts charge with great vigor at this opportunity to show their stuff. . . .

Old Girl climbs on the sofa, now vacated, and makes herself comfortable!

Who says dogs can't think?

72 posted on 10/28/2006 6:52:57 PM PDT by doberville
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To: doberville
Border collies a spooky smart.. We have one.;)

But, regarding the article posted.. There is no way a dog will pick up a handset and put it back on the receiver without being trained to do so.
73 posted on 10/28/2006 7:03:39 PM PDT by divine_moment_of_facts
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To: HairOfTheDog; devolve; ntnychik; PhilDragoo; bitt; dixiechick2000; Smartass; MeekOneGOP
Thanks HOTD.


74 posted on 10/28/2006 7:05:32 PM PDT by potlatch (Does a clean house indicate that there is a broken computer in it?)
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To: doberville

75 posted on 10/28/2006 7:11:10 PM PDT by divine_moment_of_facts
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To: potlatch

LOL!!!


76 posted on 10/28/2006 7:12:10 PM PDT by divine_moment_of_facts
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To: divine_moment_of_facts; devolve

I like the one you posted too!


77 posted on 10/28/2006 7:13:59 PM PDT by potlatch (Does a clean house indicate that there is a broken computer in it?)
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To: potlatch
heh

78 posted on 10/28/2006 7:17:37 PM PDT by devolve ( classic_moments_in_political_history)
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To: devolve

Unique pet you've got there!!


79 posted on 10/28/2006 7:19:38 PM PDT by potlatch (Does a clean house indicate that there is a broken computer in it?)
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To: devolve

80 posted on 10/28/2006 7:26:54 PM PDT by divine_moment_of_facts
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