Are pets wiser then we think?

Jennifer Vanderau
Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter

(6/2021) Do you ever wonder if our pets are far more wise than we could ever possibly give them credit?

Full disclosure. I just returned from a Qigong Meridian Therapy treatment. It’s kind of like a combination of massage and acupressure.

It’s pretty remarkable in how it makes you feel afterwards. No two treatments are ever the same and sometimes things come up that you absolutely don’t expect.

My practitioner suggests that I rest after seeing her.

Instead, I thought I’d pull up a Word document and see what comes out.

Just wanted to give you a heads up — this could get a little woo woo.

Although even without the treatment, I’m pretty woo woo.

Why do I get the feeling there are people out there right now who know me who are nodding their heads to that last sentence?

It’s cool, though. I can be pretty crazy. I own my woo woo.

My mother is very likely reading this. She may disown me yet.

Back to my original question about our pets. As I was driving home from my treatment, I started to think outside the box, as someone who has just had this kind of therapy is wont to do.

I realized that as humans, we worry about a whole lot of stuff that isn’t even on our animals’ radar – and likely shouldn’t necessarily be on ours. Or at least maybe we shouldn’t spend quite as much time and energy on the worries that we do.

Animals don’t care a hoot about politics. I seriously think the news stations would go under if animals ran the world.

What the Kardashians are wearing or saying or thinking (if that’s possible) never enters an animal’s mind.

They don’t worry about taxes in the slightest. Waiting until the last minute, even after being given a month-long extension doesn’t play even a tiny part in their daily lives. Unlike some of us. Yes, mother, I admitted it.

Animals don’t have cell phones attached to their hips and they don’t spend endless hours down the Internet rabbit hole.

The only rabbit holes some of our pets go after are quite literal rabbit holes.

Google is just another one of those weird sounds humans make. I’m sure to them it’s like baby babble is to us. Means nothing.

Although I really just freaked myself out when I realized google didn’t mean a whole lot to us just a decade or two ago. Makes you wonder what could be coming up in the next decade or two, doesn’t it?

Wild.

Our animals don’t lie awake at night thinking about should I have or if I had only or what if she doesn’t like me? or what if he’s talking bad about me?

They aren’t victims of circular thoughts when they should be sleeping.

Also, I know that some of our animals do use some form of logic from time to time.

My cat Loki knows to follow the birds and squirrels from the back of the house to the front, going from window to window.

Just the other day I saw a video on Facebook of a pitbull who had just been introduced to his reflection in a mirror. You can actually see the moment he figures out it’s not another dog and is likely him in that reflective glass.

It was pretty cool to witness the thought process and that ah ha moment in a dog.

Heck, some border collies have even been able to ascertain human language and can bring specific toys back to their owners — like mom or dad would say, "go get me the yellow banana," and boom, the dog brings back that toy from a pile of others.

That’s not to say animals don’t have feelings, though. On the contrary.

I know for a fact that animals grieve. I’ve seen it in my cats when we’ve had to say goodbye to a member of our feline family.

I’ve witnessed it in the wild animals standing a roadside vigil for a family member lost to a car.

And I know we have had dogs in the shelter whose owner passed away that sit in their kennels and feel that loss.

Yet, through it all, our animals can still find joy in the simple things — a good meal, a fresh breeze, a new toy or a hug from their favorite human.

I think there’s a real power in the ability to still enjoy life, no matter what may have happened in the past.

There also must be a real freedom in not getting caught up in the minutiae of existence, like taxes or politics or the Internet.

Our animals often have a real wisdom that can be remarkably humbling to witness.

Huh. That wasn’t too bad. Mom might even still claim me as her oldest.

Maybe there really is something to this Qigong Meridian Therapy after all.

*****

Jennifer Vanderau is the Director of Communications for the Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter in Chambersburg, Pa., and can be reached at cvasoc@innernet.net. The shelter accepts both monetary and pet supply donations. For more information, call the shelter at (717) 263-5791 or visit the website www.cvas-pets.org.