[W-Stool]

One of the things I like about my cat (Eleanor Roosevelt, a one eyed Maine Coon that sat in the local SPCA for 8 months) is that I don't try to understand her. She does her thing, mostly involving naps and head scratches, and I just admire her calm and general contentment. Whatever your dog or cat is thinking, I would suggest you just leave it alone and appreciate the life those animals live that seem so contented. Who wouldn't want that?

[hnick]

I'll disagree, for my dog at least. It is fun to watch the gears turn in his head, sometimes I see the conclusion he'll get to before he gets there. And sometimes, since I know him so well, I know where his 'dog logic' will take him with his flawed world view. It makes a kind of internal sense, when you don't see the big picture. It's fun and made me realise how far AI is from even replicating a dog's language-less thought process.

It also makes me think of alien species who might view us the same way.

It has a practical side too, our guy usually slinks off to the couch for naptime after dinner but a few months back he walked to the office and just stood in the doorway staring at us. We could instantly tell by his expression that something was wrong. He turned out to have a grass seed lodged in his armpit (Which the vet did not find! I had to remove it myself the next day).

It is fun to just watch him sleep and dream, though.