If your pet could speak English, what would you ask it?

[Pattylt]

My question would be, …when you are staring at me, are you thinking of anything other than dinner time? Even at 8 am? And noon? And 2:30?

 

[SMHW]

I’d ask her where she learned to speak English. And what accent is that?

(She thinks she already can speak English. And she gets really annoyed when I don’t know what she is saying.)

 

[BartholomewB]

Why does thunder scare you so much?

From observing our dogs over the years, there seems to be a statistical correlation between intelligence and fear of thunder. Have you noticed this, or is just a coincidence? One possibility that occurs to me is that an intelligent dog pays more attention to the world around him and notices more things, so he realizes that thunder is something very unusual. It’s not normal. He’s trying to make sense of it, but finds it baffling.

 

[BartholomewB]

Answering the OP’s question, I’d say, “Now that you’ve learned to talk, would you like me to teach you to read and write?”

 

[Buks]

Buks:

Why does thunder scare you so much?

From observing our dogs over the years, there seems to be a statistical correlation between intelligence and fear of thunder. Have you noticed this, or is just a coincidence? One possibility that occurs to me is that an intelligent dog pays more attention to the world around him and notices more things, so he realizes that thunder is something very unusual. It’s not normal. He’s trying to make sense of it, but finds it baffling.

My pet is a cat. Sometimes he does something that makes it seem that he might be a bit more intelligent than average, but overall it may be more difficult to judge with cats. I tend to think he got caught out a storm once. Hopefully it wasn’t a hurricane. Based on overall behavior, especially in the couple of years after we adopted him, I think his prior environment wasn’t the absolute worst, but definitely not the best.

 

[BartholomewB]

I didn’t know cats were afraid of thunder as well. I thought it was only dogs. What about fireworks, the same thing?

 

[JanR]

Cats can freak out if there are other people around that they don’t know, unless they have that “everyone’s cat” personality. Most of mine have been one-person-only cats, and that person has been me. The one exception was my little crippled kitty, who didn’t know he was crippled (hind legs), and he didn’t care who petted him, as long as he got petted. He was one of those “everyone’s cat”.

Each cat is different. I’ve never known one to be afraid of thunder.

 

[Pattylt]

Buks:

Why does thunder scare you so much?

From observing our dogs over the years, there seems to be a statistical correlation between intelligence and fear of thunder. Have you noticed this, or is just a coincidence? One possibility that occurs to me is that an intelligent dog pays more attention to the world around him and notices more things, so he realizes that thunder is something very unusual. It’s not normal. He’s trying to make sense of it, but finds it baffling.

Hmmm, I think it is more due the breed? At least in my own experiences. All the hunting breeds I’ve owned had no fear of thunder and some of them were very intelligent and some…not so much. My current dog is a herding breed, quite intelligent and fears thunder. He doesn’t go to the extremes I’ve seen some dogs go to, like quaking but he literally plants his body on my or my husbands leg and sticks there like glue.

I had an aunt with a pure bred boxer that she had to medicate during thunderstorms in Florida. She was a sweet girl but I really couldn’t say how intelligent she was…maybe average? I had a cockapoo that was dumber than a fence post and couldn’t care about thunder a bit! But, he also didn’t pay any attention to much of anything except food and considering it his job to nap with anyone that was napping.

 

[Buks]

I didn’t know cats were afraid of thunder as well. I thought it was only dogs. What about fireworks, the same thing?

As I recall, yes fireworks too. He’s not a timid animal - he’ll approach strangers more than most cats will. I think there must be a memory involving thunder. Or, now that you mention it, I suppose the memory could involve fireworks.

 

[dochawk]

What about fireworks, the same thing?

Most cats hate them.

Mine, however, runs to a window to check it out. He does the same thing with thunder.

But then again, he actually fetches bottle caps, too. To the point that when he finds one, he usually brings it to someone and waits for it to be thrown . . .