Do Our Pets Love Us?

[Rich Riddle]

Some research indicates that pets don't "love" us but rather simply form an attachment to us and can easily replace us. Do you folks think our pets have the capacity to love us or simply attach to us? Or something else entirely different. My dog certainly knows when she doesn't get enough time together even if others are in the house.

[Scott Shepherd]

My vote is they do love us. In fact, I think you can learn more about love from a pet than a lot of people. That's what unconditional love looks like, something many humans aren't capable of.

[Rich Riddle]

Scott,

I am likely the only one here who prefers pets to most people encountered on a daily basis. They're more transparent in their "feelings" toward you.

[Erik Loza]

My answer? Without a doubt.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Greg Peterson]

I'm perfectly content to believe they posses human emotions. If wagging tails, dancing and hopping around and licking my face isn't love, then perhaps love is not an adequate enough descriptor.

[Curt Fuller]

I believe it depends on whether or not we love our pets. Around our house we get a little carried away with affection for our critters and I think they respond in kind.

[Phil Thien]

Seems like semantics to me.

Whether you call it an attachment or bond or whatever, it all seems like at least some degree of love.

[Mike Henderson]

It's generally true that a domestic animal will form a bond with a new person (or pack) if the previous owner disappears (dies, gives the pet up for adoption, or the pet strays and isn't found). Whether the original bond is love is questionable and depends a lot on how you define "love". My own belief is that animals do not "love" but simply have an attachment that benefits them.

Mike

[John Coloccia]

I've had the opportunity to have had to give up pets. When I went to California for business, my cats ended up staying with my parents. It was supposed to be a short, 2 week arrangement, but one thing led to another and I was out there longer than 2 weeks. They became very attached to the cats, I thought it would be traumatic to transport them cross country, and however attached I was to them I was happy that they provided companionship to my parents, which they desperately needed. So bottom line, I never ended up taking them back.

I can tell you, though, that any time I visited the cats always where incredibly affectionate. It was like a little reunion every time I showed up. It was a little heart breaking, actually, because I really did miss them, but I didn't have the heart to take them away from my parents.

I don't know what emotions they're actually feeling, but there's no doubt in my mind that there is some sort of built up trust and affection that they feel. Is it "love". I doubt it...not in the human sense. They're not human, though so why would anyone expect that? I think part of the joy of pets is the uncomplicated relationship we have with them. Human emotions are complex nuanced...sometimes clouded and fickle. Pet relationships are simple and animal like, and that's really the point, isn't it?

[Phil Thien]

It's generally true that a domestic animal will form a bond with a new person (or pack) if the previous owner disappears (dies, gives the pet up for adoption, or the pet strays and isn't found).

As do humans.

I mean, if I die, my wife would surely miss me but her life would go on, she'd meet someone else and (hopefully) find someone with which to share her life.

That doesn't mean she didn't love me but was merely attached to me, does it?

[Bill ThompsonNM]

Generally true? As a vet I know of numerous instances when a other pet or owner passes away, a et will clearly undergo grieving, sometimes to the point they never recover. So, ues pets are capable of love and grief. Another owner is no more substitute then another wife or mother.

[Curt Harms]

Scott,

I am likely the only one here who prefers pets to most people encountered on a daily basis. They're more transparent in their "feelings" toward you.

No you're not. SWMBO feels the same.

[David Weaver]

I think it depends on how you think of the word love. If you extend it to what the cat, dog or whatever else is capable of and not the same way people think, sure. I'd call it a bond more, though, companionship. I don't have any pets now (neatnik wife), but grew up with gobs of animals. Like John said, I had one angry cat who thought the world of me and separated herself from everyone else - she had a 3 foot radius, and she'd allow my parents to pet her, but she didn't really go to them (despite living with them). Anything else, cat or dog, that got in the radius, got an offensive volley that left them with no question about what would happen if they didn't move out.

But every time I went home, even if I hadn't been there for 6 months, she'd follow me around and show up when I went to bed (for pet time) and arrive again in the morning. So whatever it is that a cat feels (maybe bubbles knows), bond or whatever, it was permanent. I'll take it for whatever it is, and if kitties could think people think, she'd have said the same, I guess. It doesn't need to be equivalent to some kind of person to person thing.

[Paul McGaha]

My only experience with pets are dogs for the most part. Yes, I think they love us.

Just watching my dog wait at the front door about the time my wife comes home from work. The absolute joy the dog has when she see's her. The body language and the little sounds she makes. Oh yes, I'd say that was love. I don't know if she does the same for me but I kind of hope she does.

PHM

[Ole Anderson]

Define love and you will have your answer.

Here is my favorite YouTube video which addresses the issue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H17edn_RZoY