If you’re a pet owner—especially if your companion is a dog or cat—then you know, without question, that these animals have feelings. They can show surprise, jealousy, happiness (consider a dog who hasn’t seen you for awhile), affection, contentment (think of a cat purring on one’s lap), fear, agitation, annoyance (cats particularly), perhaps even guilt or shame (dogs at least).
While animals don’t have language akin to humans, with words and gestures infused with particular meanings, they can certainly gather what’s going on at a feeling level. Here’s an illustration, courtesy of Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten, concerning his late dog Harry:
“My wife ... acts in community theater. One day, she was in the house rehearsing a monologue for an upcoming audition. The lines were from Marsha Norman’s two-person play ‘Night, Mother,’ about a housewife who is attempting to talk her adult daughter out of suicide. Thelma is a weak and bewildered woman trying to change her daughter’s mind while coming to terms with her own failings as a mother and with her paralyzing fear of being left alone. Her lines are excruciating.
“My wife had to stop in mid-monologue [when she was rehearsing at home]. [Our dog] Harry was too distraught. He could understand not one word she was saying, but he figured out that [she] was as sad as he'd ever seen her. He was whimpering, pawing at her knee, licking her hand, trying as best he could to make things better.”
