Where would we be without all the critters in this world? I love all animals. Some are definitely smarter than others. I am always amazed by how easily animals can be trained to do what you expect of them. The thing that amazes me the most is animals in the wild who are untrained by humans, but who appear to be very intelligent at problem solving. I have witnessed creatures who exhibit compassion towards each other and even loyalty and love towards each other.
You expect that your personal pet will love you unconditionally if you take good care of it and love it, but to see animals in the wild caring for and loving each other is worth further study. If you are observant, you can witness astounding animal behaviour that shoots down the theory by so-called experts who insist that animals only do what is instinctive, or what they have been trained to do.
According to many animal experts, animals are not capable of making decisions on their own. I vehemently disagree with their theory. I also strongly disagree with the contention of experts who claim that animals are not capable of emotions.
My experience with animals tells me that they are very capable of making decisions and even playing tricks on people. I had a dog that was always looking for a new place to hide her bones. One day I saw her so engrossed in thought that she didn’t respond to me when I spoke to her. I watched as she lay on the floor and looked pensively around the parlor. In a moment, she got up and went to get her bone. She walked into the parlor and climbed up on the chair and dropped her bone over the top of the lampshade. Of course, it fell through and hit the table, but nevertheless she was delighted that she had found a new place to hide her bone and she wagged her tail excitedly. That showed me that she thought it out before she tried it. I know the result was not smart, but she’s a dog. The fact is that she lay there and planned what she wanted to do. It tells me that their intelligence is greatly underestimated by many of the experts and by most of humanity, for that matter.
A recent image of one dog caring for another injured dog in the aftermath of the recent Japan earthquake and ensuing tsunami was a real heart-wrenching ah-h-h moment.
There have been many stories of most unlikely friendships between animals of different species. A swan had nested in a graveside urn while incubating her eggs and a deer was protecting her. It is said that the deer had been in the cemetery for quite a few years and had befriended many other animals of different species.
I have found that if you let your mind relax in the presence of animals, they can communicate with you. Animals appear to understand your moods and are eager to please and communicate with you.
In an area where I used to live, my windows were side sliders. I used to love feeding the squirrels. In order to open the window, I would slide it open just far enough to get my hand out. One day, I slept in and didn’t get to feed the squirrels until three hours later than usual. As I went to open the slider, the squirrel outside on the windowsill stood on his hind legs and pulled on the slider the same way I was doing because he was hungry and wanted to help me open the window faster. I wished I had a camera for that helpful event.
Even birds are intelligent …most of the time. Recently, a friend told me that she had wrens on her property. One wren in particular kept coming over to her car and looking at itself in the side view mirror. It sounded like a cute story. I went to visit her and witnessed the behaviour for myself.
It’s springtime and it’s mating season for a lot of critters including birds. Watching the bird flutter in front of the mirror made me wonder if it saw its own reflection and thought it was a potential mate. I wondered if when it saw its own reflection in the car window, did it think there was a fellow wren trapped inside, and wanted to get out. I don’t know, but since this behaviour has been going on for over a week now, I have to think that this little wren is either nuts, or it’s in distress by thinking there is a trapped buddy inside the car. I am kind of leaning towards the latter because the wren has torn the wiper blade to shreds and it keeps pecking at the window when it isn’t admiring itself in the mirror.
If someone goes outside and shoos the bird off, it will fly away. As soon as it realizes the people are back inside the house, it comes back and flutters against the window again. It arrives in the early morning and stays there until night falls. Now, in week three, when the cars are gone, the wren flutters at the house windows and tries to get inside the house, or it sees its own reflection in the window and again thinks that there is a buddy trapped inside.
Yes, animals are intelligent beyond what most people believe, but some are just plain bonkers too.
The End