Do you think the animals that share your home are happy? Does it matter? Do you anthropomorphize your animals? Do you ever think about how freaky it is for these carnivores to share your home and rely on you for food and shelter?

I acknowledge that I engage in tons of anthropomorphizing. On the other hand, I think my dogs are pretty happy. They have been bred for centuries to live as companions, after all, and they were pack animals before that. I have no idea how they feel about certain aspects of their lives, i.e., the dog crate -- I think the answer probably lies somewhere in between the dog establishment hoopla about crate training tapping into natural "den animal" instincts, and my own squeamishness about leaving a lively animal locked up for several hours at a time.

I don't think my cats are very happy. I don't think cats are ever happy. I think cats are happy when they have something to be pissed off about, which I suppose means that my cats are generally pretty happy. Then again, who cares if cats are happy?

What are your thoughts? On animal happiness, I mean, not my cat-bashing tendencies.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

Answers

My cats aren't happy. They don't even like each other, and their owner doesn't clean the litterbox often enough, lets them starve to death regularly, spends a lot of time typing on the little orange box when they need to be petted, and doesn't give them her food when they whine.

It's a tragedy.

I just remind them that, if not for me, they would be either dead, or diseased, flea-infested and living off the moldy bean soup from someone's compost pile. That shuts them right up.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

I think our cats are mostly happy, except when they want to be fed. And they don't seem to like being home alone, judging by the pee covering my papasan chair.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

I think my dogs are happy. They hang out with each other and the dachsunds next door, they've got a huge yard to play in and plenty of treats when I get home. I think they're deliriously happy to see me, especially when I have food for them.

My brother's dog, on the other hand, is manic depressive. He can be extremely hyper and happy one moment and then mope around the next. He is constantly trying to run away, even though he has a great home and yard. He does not, however, have another canine companion, which I think makes him very sad. So, he's pretty excited and happy when he comes over here and has two buddies to play with. But then he gets snarky with them after a while, and goes into his depressive state, at which point, he begs to be let inside and then sleeps in the washroom. Maybe my brother should think about dogg

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2000

Hmmm...my posts keep getting cut off at the weirdest points. Anyhoo, the last sentence above should read: "Maybe my brother should think about doggie lithium

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2000

Hmmmmmmm, Can we ever REALLY know?

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2000

My cats live in the lap of luxury... they are allowed to sleep anywhere they want to, have food whenever they "meow" for it, more toys than most human children, pettings whenever they see fit, snacks several times a day, parents who love them enough to not only keep them safe and healthy, but to enhance their quality of life, a mama who fusses with the daddy who wants to bring a "bark" into their happy family--- and wins, and everything their little feline hearts could ask for.... I wanna be one of my cats!!!!

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2000

My cats are certainly happier than they used to be, since they were both rescued from grim situations -- stuck in cages with lots of other cats and never fed enough. And since we got the second cat, the first one seems much happier. It was becoming apparent she was bored out of her mind alone in the house all day. I feel good about the fact that they love cuddling with each other, and that they're obviously thrilled to death chasing each other around the house all day, even though they're a few years old now (since they're rescues, their ages are unclear.)

However, I wonder whether this is what they would choose, and whether they find life kind of dull. We try to set them puzzles to solve while we're gone (get the food out of the play and treat ball, fish the rubber ducks out of the mini-pond in the kitchen, find the treats we've hidden around the house), but we're too lazy to do that every day, and I worry that they'll turn into the understimulated cats I see all the time who just sleep all day, too bored to care about anything anymore. Obviously they'd find life more interesting if they went outside, but I can't justify doing that to the birds in the neighborhood, and they're freaked out by the idea of going outside anyway. They had a hard enough time getting used to having more than four square feet to themselves.

When we buy a house I'd like to build them a little enclosed run outside where they can watch birds and chase bugs. I'm probably just a freak, though. I tend to think of the cats like dogs (since I had dogs first), and as a result, I assume that lying around all day isn't what they really want out of life. Which could be completely wrong. They do enjoy playing games though, like fetch the mouse, or the shell game we play with the treats, and that makes me think that there's more going on in their little heads than, "Where is that sunny spot?"

Mostly I try not to think about it too much. If I did, I'd feel guilty and overfeed them. If they were overweight they really would be less happy; they couldn't play or jump like they can now, and they'd die young to boot. So there it is.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2000

Ab-sa-friggin-lutely. The 2 happiest siamese cats in the world.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2000

How could my dogs BE any happier? Mom and Dad both work at home. They get really yummy dog food. They get treats when they're good, and treats for just being cute, not to forget treats when one of the three go poty outside. (We all celebrate that achievement.)

They are petted, played with, cooed over, brushed, loved on, scratched in just that right spot and spanked - only when bad. They are so happy, that sometimes they will seek me out and just stand there wagging their tails. I think we've been great parents.

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2000

Well, okay. All of you have animals that are well-treated. Did you read the article, though? Are we judging our animals based on our own notions of happiness?

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2000

I don't know how we can do anything but anthropomorphize our pets. We have no frame of reference for thinking like a cat. Although according to several things I've read lately, cats are supposedly more mentally and emotionally like us than we might be prepared to accept. Their DNA looks more like ours than you might think, too.

I wonder if our cats felinopomorphize us. Like when I'm walking around the house singing to the Foo Fighters, are they thinking "Christ, why doesn't that big cat ever shut up? She just meows all the time. Do you think we should take her to the doctor? Is something wrong with her?" I know Mharnu freaks out when I sing along to human music (as opposed to when I sing the "fattest cat that ever grew" song, which he knows is his own personal song).

Anyway, from where I'm sitting, I can pretty much tell when they're contented, when they're bored, when they're stimulated, and when they're pissed off. It doesn't seem like it's rocket science to figure them out.

Anyone read that book by Suzette Haden Elgin, where they put babies into "interfaces" with aliens so that they can really absorb the language...and there are some aliens that make the babies' heads explode because they're just too different? I don't think cats are just too different for us to understand. I think if I was raised by cats (wait, I *was* raised by cats...sort of) I would learn to understand "cat" pretty darned well.

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2000

Well our cat was happy until we got a kitten two days ago. Neeko (our 2 year old cat) always lived with other cats until recently, when my girlfriend (his real owner) moved in with me, and out of her apt. with the other cat. Well Neeko discovered the cat in the mirror and would rub against the mirror and try and play with the cat. We as humans took this to mean that he was lonely and needed a friend.

Unfortunately this didn't work as we planned. For the first day he kept trying to attack the kitten - We're not sure if he was playing or not. Now he seems okay with the kitten, but he still chases her around biting at her butt and sitting on her head.

The thing that concerns us is his attitude towards us. He has always been really easy going. He never minded being left alone when we went on vacation, and he's always been friendly to strangers. He was never a very affectionate cat, but he always liked being patted and would tolerate being held. Now he walks away when we try and pat him, and he even hisses and growls at my girlfriend - his real owner.

I think if you've had a pet for a long time you can tell if they're happy or not. You know how they normally act (assuming they haven't been unhappy for years), so you can see changes.

I think that it matters if they are happy, as well. I'm sad that my cat is unhappy and hopes he gets over it soon. It's kind of like seeing your kid mope around the house all day.

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2000

I think our cats are happy. (I didn't read the article, so I'm not sure.) They seem to enjoy sitting in the sun, sleeping on the sofa and bed, and genuinely seem to like us, coming to us to beg for affection. When we come home they wake up and run to greet us.

One of them sometimes wants to go outside and explore, and gets frustrated until he gets distracted by something else. Keeping him inside probably isn't letting him be true to his nature, but then neither is getting him neutered. I'd rather he live a longer life indoors than a shorter life that includes wandering the neighborhood. He's happy most of the time anyway.

It does strike me as weird sometimes that these furred, clawed animals live in our house and get right up on our laps and go to sleep. If we suddenly shrank to the size of mice they'd kill us without a second thought. But they're domestic animals now. I don't know if they'd be able to live on their own - cats don't know how to kill & eat prey unless they learned as kittens.

Dogs nearly always seem happy, in a dumb non-critical way. But then, who cares?

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2000

I sure as hell hope my dog is happy.

He stays outside during the day while everyone is at work and when I get home, he's allowed inside until everyone goes to bed. On weekends, he virtually spends no time alone. We take him everywhere he's allowed. Although I, too, engage in a lot of anthropomorphizing of Oscar, I also try to let him be a dog. He's a Basset, so his sense of smell is quite keen--we take him out to the Ozarks, etc. and let him sniff his little heart out. We try to let him be his own doggy self as much as possible. He's trained for the usual tricks--sit, stay, etc. but largely so that we can control him when needed--not so we can impress people.

I tend to think of him as my child, which sometimes I think I'm overdoing. We've noticed that he is very much a momma's boy--even though he is my boyfriend's dog, he follows me around and if I go to bed while he's still in the house, he sits at my bedroom door and cries until one of the guys distracts him. I hate that he does that. The guys try to roughhouse with him so he can get some exercise that isn't just strictly a long walk or chasing a ball. We get him around other dogs as much as possible, so he can be socialized with other animals.

I believe that although he's been bred to be a companion, he should still be thought of as an animal in his own right--I can't completely control him and despite all of the training lit I've read--I don't want to completely break him. My boyfriend, Tom, is totally into the pack mentality and engaging Oscar in it as often as possible. Anytime Oscar acts up, even slightly, Tom gets on the floor with him, on all fours, and "establishes himself as the Alpha male" all over again. It's pretty funny to watch.

The truth is, we can't ever know if our dog is happy. All we can do is try our damnednest to make sure that he gets a lot of attention, exercise, nutrition, and love. Although I think Oscar IS happy overall, if he were suddenly able to fill out a rating form on us--I think Tom and I would be in for a big surprise.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2000

Yeah, our cat is happy, I think. She sleeps all day in various configurations on the patio furniture, has plenty of lizards to chase in a desultory way, gets fed on a regular basis, is given petting and love when she wants them and is left alone when she doesn't. She comes and goes as she pleases, especially in the summer when our doors and windows stay open all the time. We cohabitate with her more than anything.

I do have that odd alien feeling sometimes when I look at her - this is a small clawed carnivore with sharp teeth that seems to like hanging around with us. It makes me happy to think that way.

We've learned to understand each other. Roger and I can distinguish common phrases in Cat like "I'm hungry" and "The water bowl is empty" and "Open this door now!" and "Shut up, you stupid bird" and she certainly knows when I'm singing the Emily song or talking about anything related to cats or catfood. She says hello in two different ways, depending on whether you had to open the door for her or not.

When she walks in from outside, she meows hello and my husband (whose computer is by the front door) says hello out loud back. I laugh sometimes when I'm in another room and hear them having a whole conversation. "Good to see you, too," he says absently when she makes a certain sound and rubs against his legs, then when she says something else, he responds "Yeah, I know. I'll fill up your water in a minute."

I like to think this is inter-species communication rather than anthropomorphism but whatever.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2000

Well of course humans and animals in the same household communicate. You understand when a bark is a playful bark or a angry bark or an alert bark. Same with a cat, they vocalize in different tones, and you understand what they want or need. We have had numerous cats and dogs over the years. And at times it can be a little disconcerting to realize you knew exactly what the animal wanted or they did exactly what you told them to do.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2001