Friday, May 04, 2007

Animals....

I've noticed something very interesting about the animals I've had in my life over the years.

This morning, my dog was very careful around me. This has happened before, too. When I have one of my dark moods, she will avoid irritating me. It's not like she's afraid but I get the sense that she has an instinctive knowledge that I don't have much to share with her. She will lay quietly next to me or go off to her bed and stay there. Of course she gets fed and walked but giving her any more than that is more than I can do.

When I woke up today, she needed to know I was "okay" before she'd do her usual yelping and following. She waited very patiently for me to feed her. Later we'll go for a walk.

This might sound nutty, but I actually talk to my dog. I picked her up and explained to her that I am okay, that things will be normal today but I still need more quiet than usual. I also thanked her for taking such good care of me yesterday. Animals are capable of understanding far more than we realize sometimes. While I know she doesn't understand my language symbols, she is picking up my energy flow.

Has anyone else noticed this kind of intuition from their animals?



Peace,


~Chani

15 comments:

Hel said...

What a gorgeous dog.

And yes mine definitely sense my moods. And Fey will put her head next to me and talk to me in her throaty voice.

meno said...

The last time i was crying, both my cats came running from another part of the house and tried to sit on me.

I don't know what goes on in those little pea minds, but there is certainly some sensitivity to my mood.

Cute puppy too.

Anonymous said...

Animals know, even my stupid beasts that I love so much. I saw a show on NOVA last night about a young diabetic boy that would crash without warning and then have seizures. He ended up with a service dog that could smell when his blood sugar had dropped and alert him. Pretty cool.

S said...

I don't own a pet, but I absolutely believe that animals have emotional intelligence.

LittlePea said...

Cute! I've done that before. When I was spending the winter with my inlaws, my dog was misbehaving big time. He would not listen. Finally I decided to not yell and calmy explained to him that this is not his 'territory' and that he needs to listen to me and stop misbehaving. It was more for my own sanity at the moment but it seemed to work.

Girlplustwo said...

i don't think it's nutty at all. i had a dog once who was so sensitive to my moods. he was a homeless dog, so he had been through a lot, and was scared of everything. if i was upset, he'd actually cower (and i don't mean upset with him)

what a love, your dog.

Pam said...

My cat feels my every mood and cuddles me when I'm down. We talk, too. After 17 years, we know each other quite well.

Sweet puppy!

Anonymous said...

I had a wire fox terrier who was very loved and definitely in tune to me. I often wondered if she was reincarnated from a human (which is probably dissing the canine nature). She had an extensive vocabulary. I still miss her, after 4 years. As smart as poodles are supposed to be, I'll take a terrier any time.

Anonymous said...

I sometimes wonder if speech is a help or an impediment to communication.

Mary said...

Chani, I not only talk to my dogs, but they talk back. We hold conversations. Silly but true.

When I had ankle surgery, my usual playful and spirited girls shared my sedentary lifestyle. They knew I was down and stayed by my side constantly, allowing me to give hugs whenever I needed one.

See a previous post here, it's kind of silly but honest!

http://marys-view.blogspot.com/2007/03/conversations-with-pets.html

QT said...

OMG -I talk to my dog every single day! He is so my shadow, and so in love with me that I regularly wonder if I am THAT loveable of a person!

They say the animals can read human expressions better than we can. I remember reading a story about a woman who worked with primates, teaching them sign language. She became preganant, and miscarried. She went to work that day, and managed to not tell any of her co-workers about it. No one detected anything wrong until she went into the room full of chimps. Alternatively, they approached her and kept signing "sad". One female chimp in particular kept signing to her until she would respond.

Of course, now I have gone out of the canine world and into primates. However, my point is, we reveal a lot through body language and expression, and our animals, absent sharing a spoken language, have learned to read the cues. It is amazing, really.

Bob said...

oh, yea. Dogs especially. They can tell when you're scared of them, when you're mad at them, etc.

amazing creatures, dogs are.

flutter said...

animals are so much more intuned than people. You're not nutty

dmmgmfm said...

I agree that dogs are incredibly intuitive. My son's border collie knew my mom had terminal cancer before her doctors did.

Your dog is beautiful.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Animals are great communicators. It's humans who have trouble understanding and being understood.

I have always talked to animals. After all, I'm an animal, too.

When we humans start to believe that we are the only sentient beings, we are in trouble. Please don't stop talking to that adorable little dog.