Hello Kristen;

I have to agree with you. One observation I have witnessed is cats tend to see you as equals. This is funny what I'm about to tell you, but it's true. I was taking a nap one afternoon about a year after I adopted Angel, and all of a sudden, Angel decided he would lay on the pillow next to my head. The next thing, he is cleaning my head/hair. It felt like a rasp file going across my head, but being curious, I let him go to see what he would do next. After about 6 minites of my cat cleaning my scalp, he layed down right next to me, and went into a deep dream state. After that, and up to the day, he has been as close as can be to me. And by the way, he has never cleaned my scalp after that incident. Was this a sign of acceptance from him, an initiation rite? What I'm trying to fiqure is does he accept me as a human, or another cat? He is also protective. A stray dog came up my porch one night, and pressed his nose to the screen door. All of a sudden, Angel let out this blood curdling scream and hit the dog so hard through the screen it sent the dog tumbling. I have a funny picture of a house cat looking into a mirror, and the image the house cat sees in his mind is a lion! I believe it