Pays to get in touch with what animals are feeling

Pets are peculiar beings and anyone who tells you they don’t have emotions is misguided.

They may not come about them naturally, but if they hang around people with emotions they begin to develop them as well. If you have more than one pet in the family it happens even quicker.

When I get home of an evening my little dog hears the garage door go up and is waiting to mob me when I get to my chair. She sure enough seems happy to see me. After washing my ears thoroughly she settles in between my legs for comfort.

Eventually the big dog comes in and greets us all at the top of his voice. Someone who didn’t know him well might fear for their life as loud and persistent as he is with his barking. He knows Daddy will talk back to him, most times in English, and he gets a big kick out of that. He only barks when he’s happy. Lock him in the garage by accident in the evening and he will never bark a peep and won’t even scratch the door to get let back inside, not even with me calling for him.

Both animals have developed a huge jealousy streak. If the other is getting my attention or sitting in my lap the other is expressing displeasure in some way. Mostly it’s barking but the little dog will run outside and bark just to try and convince big brother there’s danger alurk. If the little dog is in my lap the big dog begins fetching dog toys for me to win my affection.

I can kick them both out of my chair and everyone is quickly at peace again.

The little dog has an extra emotion the big guy doesn’t possess. She can stay swelled up and mad at me for days if I’ve, say, given her a bath or cut a grass burr out of her chin hair.

She punishes me by ignoring me. She’s dead serious about it, but my wife and I laugh out loud when she starts doing it.

I’m not sure how she knows but she automatically knows when she might get to go for a car ride with me. She can beat me to the door. If she knows she doesn’t stand a chance she won’t get out of my chair that she’s holding down.

I don’t think most people are in touch with their animals to notice what they’re feeling but it really pays off when you do.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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