Can pets love their owners?

viktory

As adults we understand that we love our family in different ways....for example the love we have for our children is different to the love we have for our husbands or wives. We also love our pets, if we have any.

However, can our pets truly love us or is it just cupboard love for food, shelter and a place on the bed?

Gingham_Ribbon

I think animals are capable of a wide range of emotions and I would say that my dog was devoted to us. But I don't know if it was love as we know it. My cats, I fear it is cupboard love. But they do enjoy being with us, One is purring at my elbow as I type, one is curled up on the floor next to me and the other was making a pest of herself earlier by insisting on climbing on the keyboard while I was trying to type. They enjoy being around me, are certainly what I would call happy. But I don't think they love me. I think dogs are different.

clairehas

i think that pets must love the hand that feeds them!!

Bogof_Babe

Bertie says "don't be daft, the first time you don't let me plod across your pillow at 3.00 a.m. and bite your head until you get up and feed me, I'm outa here".

At least I think he said "I'm" :eek: .

pknottm

viktory wrote:

can our pets truly love us or is it just cupboard love for food, shelter and a place on the bed?

can our pets love us?! Just a bit. Our dog Judy loves my mrs to bits...so much so that if she was a person she would be done for stalking!!!
My wife can't even go to the toilet without Judy (the dog) sitting outside the toilet door!

We all take it in turns to walk and feed her (only from her bowl)....but she is infatuated with the wife...

When anyone else comes home, Judy wags her tail at us, etc, but when the wife comes home, Judy goes absolutely berserk!! (and it's not encouraged!)

So much so that it reminds me of Greyfriars Bobby...I can see Judy sitting on the wife's grave if she ever passed away!!

BTW: Judy is a little Collie/Spaniel cross, very, very placid, and is a Rescue dog from the RSPCA.She's 4 years old, and we've had her for a year and a half! Couldn't have asked for a better pet!

mrcow

viktory wrote:

However, can our pets truly love us

I don't really know.....but some doggies could give Glenn Close a run for her money!

JohnInDebt

Pets will always love the last person that fed them

Penny_Watcher

pknottm wrote:

My wife can't even go to the toilet without Judy (the dog) sitting outside the toilet door!

'Love is' never having to go to the toilet again by yourself. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Don't know why I'm laughing - I've got a stalking dog. Poor thing is totally imprinted on me. She's asleep under the desk. If I get up to make a cuppa she'll follow me the 10ft into the kitchen, sit at my feet while I make some tea, then follow me 10ft back to my desk.

Occassionally it drives me mad but, like Judy, mine is a rescue dog. She was picked up skinny and frightened from the streets of Leeds by the police, spent a week in police kennels and nobody came to claim her. They passed her onto the Dogs Trust and we adopted her from there. I'm sure she just sees me as a food source really.

The other dog Fat Bob (who is actually a [STRIKE]!!!!![/STRIKE] girl dog) is totally different, friendly as anything but doesn't have the urge to follow you everywhere.

Iguana

When I go on holiday apparently my cats sit in the hall by the cat flap waiting for me to come back. When they heard a car they would go rushing outside to see who it was.
My first cat that I ever had, Fred, when I came home from hospital after having my oldest daughter rolled around the floor rubbing his head all over my feet when I came home from hospital - I was only away for 48 hours at the time and that was when I was still in the chair from the ambulance.
I think animals have a genuine attatchment to their owners in a lot of cases, it doesn't always relate to who feeds them.

CarolnMalky

I would say that like humans, some animals are capable of love...we have a cat we got from a rescue centre when she was a couple of months old and she is like a wee dog...follows me everywhere, I know how pknottm's wife feels as our cat follows me everywhere!!

When I am in the bath, the cat lies on the toiled seat lid and goes for a snooze!! She is sleeping next to me as I type...everyone told us that cats can be cold/unaffectionate creatures, ours certainly isnt.

Another bizarre thing she does is "shmoosh" us..where she rubs her head over our legs and feet.
She is a fab wee cat

moneyman4u

When I go on holiday apparently my cats sit in the hall by the cat flat waiting for me to come back

They have their own flat?