A few years ago I had a cat named Sasha. Sasha was the queen of the house, so no other cats then. Sasha hated children and dogs. Well, actually, Sasha hated just about everyone except me. She was the Akita of cats. All other living things were beneath contempt.
One of the rules of the house was that when my dog came in from outside, she had to lie on a mat by the door until her feet were dry. She usually stayed put as asked, but if she thought she could get away with it, Kiche would sneak off the mat by belly crawling a few inches at a time.
One day, I caught her doing this and said, while pointing, "Get back there."
Dejected, Kiche would skulk back over to the mat and lie back down with a deep, over-exaggerated sigh.
I went to the bedroom, and could just see through the livingroom to the mat and I noticed Kiche had crawled a couple of feet off the mat again. I told her to go back. She did. Then she snuck off the mat again. So I marched back into the living room and pointed to the door, yelling, "GET BACK THERE!"
Just as Kiche was getting up to go back to the mat, Sasha, who had been quietly observing this interaction the whole time, came running out from her observation post, ran right up to Kiche, and smacked her on the head. Then sat down as calm as you please and with an authoritarian attitude stared the poor dog down as Kiche trudged back to the mat and lay down.
Kiche didn't move again until I called her.
And to think, there are people who insist animals have no emotions or intentional thought processes beyond insticts! I think Sasha is one of many non-humans who would beg to differ.
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