Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

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
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 141-149 next last
To: shrinkermd; sinkspur; 88keys; DugwayDuke; sissyjane; Severa; the OlLine Rebel; naturalman1975; ...
Ping!


Other articles with keyword "DOGGIEPING" since 12/29/04

41 posted on 10/28/2006 5:05:43 PM PDT by HairOfTheDog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TBP
Just say the word BATH in Nitro's presence......
42 posted on 10/28/2006 5:06:47 PM PDT by Battle Axe (Repent for the coming of the Lord is nigh!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Slings and Arrows; shrinkermd; HairOfTheDog; Glenn; republicangel; Bahbah; Beaker; BADROTOFINGER; ..


Shows you how rearded experts are.
Most of us knew that when we were fledglings!


43 posted on 10/28/2006 5:10:13 PM PDT by Lady Jag (Bravery is being the only one who knows you're afraid)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: shrinkermd

This will make it harder to waterboard my dogs


44 posted on 10/28/2006 5:11:03 PM PDT by woofie (If not this war then which one?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: shrinkermd

45 posted on 10/28/2006 5:14:16 PM PDT by Lady Jag (Bravery is being the only one who knows you're afraid)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lady Jag

LOL. I don't know how you did that, but it's a hoot.


46 posted on 10/28/2006 5:14:45 PM PDT by Bahbah (Shalit, Goldwasser and Regev, we are praying for you)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: ThanhPhero

My daughter had a cocker spaniel who was mean, but certainly smart. She had gotten him a rubber cheeseburger squeaky toy. One evening around suppertime, Beau was nosing his supper dish around on the kitchen floor and nobody was responding. He went to the other end of the house, got the "cheesebugga", brought it to the kitchen and dumped it in his dish. We got the message, all right.


47 posted on 10/28/2006 5:18:04 PM PDT by 19th LA Inf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: tet68
"I don't have a problem with liberals, everyone should have one, in a cage, where it can't hurt anyone."

But what good are they? They're dumber than a box of rocks. You can't even teach them to do tricks. And if you bring them out at parties, they'll just embarass you by humping on your date's leg...or worse.

48 posted on 10/28/2006 5:20:58 PM PDT by sweetliberty (Stupidity should make you sterile!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: shrinkermd
"the dog....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"

If my cats didn't like the ringing phone, they would call the phone company and have the number changed.
THAT'S the difference between cats and dogs.

49 posted on 10/28/2006 5:23:21 PM PDT by Psalm 73 ("Gentlemen, you can't fight in here - this is the War Room".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bahbah

Me neither, I don't usually tackle flocking spectacles.


50 posted on 10/28/2006 5:23:52 PM PDT by Lady Jag (Bravery is being the only one who knows you're afraid)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: Lady Jag

51 posted on 10/28/2006 5:27:37 PM PDT by BulletBobCo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: divine_moment_of_facts
Oh, come on, it's possible.

I had a male Siamese who, when the phone rang, would knock the receiver off the cradle and meow into it at the top of his lungs.

We had to put all the phones on the wall or on top of the bookcases. He would still occasionally jump up, hang on, and pull one off.

He was also the cat who thought he was Lord of the Jungle. He would leap up onto the tops of doors and hang there with his hind feet on the top of the door and his front paws braced on the side. When unsuspecting people walked underneath he would drop on their heads with a blood curdling scream.

And he won his Championship in CFA. He was quite the versatile kitty.

52 posted on 10/28/2006 5:29:22 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Slings and Arrows; B4Ranch

#36 BUMPping.

(Looks like a certain tough [As in hit and run surviving!] pussy cat!)


53 posted on 10/28/2006 5:43:40 PM PDT by Brian Allen ("Moral issues are always terribly complex, for someone without principles." - G K Chesterton)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: BulletBobCo
Your photo proves that a duck's complex thought processes include deducing cause and effect.

My photo proves ducks can drive.



54 posted on 10/28/2006 5:47:25 PM PDT by Lady Jag (Bravery is being the only one who knows you're afraid)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: shrinkermd

We have a very small dog (my daughter's Chihuahua) and several cats. The dog is "of very little brain," so she doesn't concern me, but the cats have bothered me for decades (through several iterations). My gut feeling is that cats look at their "owners" as meat on the hoof. If they could figure out a way to get us down, we'd be lunch.

I think that's what all the running under our feet is about. They're obviously trying to trip us and get us to break our necks.

C'mon, you know it's true!


55 posted on 10/28/2006 5:50:03 PM PDT by Phsstpok (Often wrong, but never in doubt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: AnAmericanMother
My Siamese taught herself to pee in the toilet while nobody was looking. Of course, she's a genius...

She is extremely private so we haven't gotten her photo, but she sits just like this one >>



56 posted on 10/28/2006 5:51:09 PM PDT by Lady Jag (Bravery is being the only one who knows you're afraid)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: mathprof
But donkeys don't think do they?

No Democrats don't...they react instinctually to any emotional, 'feel good' imput.

57 posted on 10/28/2006 5:52:18 PM PDT by He Rides A White Horse (Unite)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Cicero

Oh, that is so sad... :(

I have mourning issues with road kill, so a crying cow just breaks my heart. If I had to be a farmer I'd also have to be a vegetarian, I couldn't think about eating what could have been my own steer. Chickens,OTOH, deserve to be eaten.


58 posted on 10/28/2006 6:01:06 PM PDT by madison10 (Live your life in such a way that the preacher won't have to lie at your funeral.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: tet68

???


59 posted on 10/28/2006 6:02:01 PM PDT by stuartcr (Everything happens as God wants it to.....otherwise, things would be different.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: He Rides A White Horse
Some things just can't be helpted.


60 posted on 10/28/2006 6:05:04 PM PDT by Lady Jag (Bravery is being the only one who knows you're afraid)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 141-149 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson