Yes love!
I will presume you don’t care much for dogs.....probably better off for them.
>>I will presume you don’t care much for dogs.....probably better off for them.<<
I like ‘em a lot. But I know what love is. I also know what fondness is, what “like” is.
But I also like squirrels. I trained them to climb up my body, sit on my shoulder and take an almond from my finger. I like them. I don’t love them because they are not human.
I like trees too. I like nature, but I don’t love it. I love the CREATOR of nature, but not nature itself.
There is a line from the movie “Big fish” where the son suspects a woman had an affair with his father years ago. The woman said (I quote the best I can), “To your father there were two women in the world: Your mother; and the rest of them.”
I revert to what I said to some animal rights activists in front of a fir shop back in 1991: “Nature is divided into two groups: Man, and everything else. Only man is made in the image of God. Only man has the capability to love because that love comes from God. Animals can reasonably “mimic” love which is why we domesticate the more “predictable” ones, most “cuddly” ones.
Fact is, it “feels” like love. But for me, it is like a movie. I can cry at the end of a chick flick because I can suspend disbelief. I know it isn’t real, and just actors crying crocodile tears, and a good script. But suspended disbelief allows me to “feel it as though it were real”.
I do the same with animals. I cuddled and played with our Malti-poo ten minutes before writing this. It was great and it “feels” like human affection the animal is giving me. But that is because I can suspend disbelief as when watching the movie. If I really needed protein right now I would have no qualms about killing and gutting Hami and cooking him up.
I spent enough time on a farm when a child to have a realistic grasp of the difference between an animal and a man.
People who only experience pets, zoos and “Bambi” have no clue about what motivates animals. Everything is about why. Everything! Fact is, animals can do the same “loving” things as humans, but for entirely different reasons.
It aint love, any more than “sweet nothings” programed into, and proclaimed by a computer are love. Its conditioning and instinct.
Frankly, much (but not all) of what we call “love” exhibited by humans isn’t love either.
Love is an action, and even then only when the action is rooted in specific selfless motives. Since animals are not self aware, “selfless” or even “selfish” do not apply. Therefore “love” does not apply as a definition for animals or their actions, any more than “thoughtful” applies to your computer telling you what time it is.
I really like playing with Hami though...