Do our pets care about us?

Question 1

domesticated

Answer 1

describes animals which are under human control and live closely with people, for example pets, working animals and farm animals.

We’re talking about domesticated animals – types of animals which are under human control and have been living closely with people for centuries. They include pets, like cats and dogs, working animals and farm animals, like cows and sheep.

Question 2

anthropomorphize

Answer 2

treat an animal as if it were human in appearance or behaviour.

It’s hard to know what’s really going on behind a dog’s big, brown eyes. Unlike humans, pets can’t talk to say how they’re feeling, and this makes it easy for us to misunderstand them. People often anthropomorphize their pets – treat them as if they were human by giving them human characteristics.
In cartoons, Micky Mouse can talk and Donald Duck dances and sings, but we know mice and ducks don’t really do that in nature.

Question 3

feign

Answer 3

pretend to have a particular problem or emotion.

I was squealing around the floor in agony, holding my leg up in the air, trying to feign an injury. Meanwhile the cat, who’s on the windowsill, is looking at me with wide eyes.
Adrian didn’t really hurt his leg – he feigned, or pretended, to be hurt. He pretended to be in agony – extreme physical pain, to see what his pets would do.

Question 4

agony

Answer 4

extreme physical pain.

I was squealing around the floor in agony, holding my leg up in the air, trying to feign an injury. Meanwhile the cat, who’s on the windowsill, is looking at me with wide eyes.
Adrian didn’t really hurt his leg – he feigned, or pretended, to be hurt. He pretended to be in agony – extreme physical pain, to see what his pets would do.

Question 5

distress

Answer 5

strong feeling of worry, sadness or pain.

they’re definitely paying their owner an awful lot of attention when they’re displaying a negative distress emotion, comparing to during the control procedure where they’re just doing cat things – walking around, grooming… that kind of thing.
The experiment showed the different responses of cats and dogs to human distress – feelings of worry, sadness or pain.

Question 6

grooming

Answer 6

the way some animals clean themselves using their tongue or paws.

In the experiment, dogs were visibly concerned, while cats simply paid more attention to what was going on. Some cats did nothing except carry on grooming – cleaning themselves using their tongue and paws.
The experiment confirms the idea we have of cats being cold and antisocial. And of dogs being our best friend. But according to Dr Hiestand’s findings, cats also feel human distress – they just show it in a different way.