Animals are like humans …

Jennifer Vanderau
Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter

(8/2018) Every once in a while, when I notice it, I’m shown how incredibly human our four-legged friends can actually be. Their mannerisms and expressions sometimes make me wonder if they’re picking up the signals we’re giving them and deliberately trying to be more like us.

Allow me to give a few examples.

Just recently, the youngest addition to my household of felines, appropriately named Loki after the God of Mischief, began living up to his name. He was a little squirt when he first arrived, but now probably approaching a year old, he’s feeling his oats.

Loki has a few white spots under his arms and on his belly and abdomen, but other than that, he’s all black and he is really developing some serious expressions. He has this look he gives me when I’m "bothering" him – and that means trying to cuddle when he isn’t in the mood – that goes so beyond the notorious "cat look" it can be somewhat alarming.

The look consists of slanted eyes and a demeanor that just screams, "You need to back away. Soon."

But then there are other times when he’s got what I call "the rips," where he just tears around the house at a furious pace and won’t stop for anything – almost like a little feline freight train. He did this the other day when I walked in the room and I swear he had an expression of pure glee on his face.

The night I brought home rotisserie chicken for dinner, you would have thought I was King Midas returning with the treasure. He loved that so much, at one point in time, he tapped his little paw just lightly on my knee as if to say, "I’d like a little more, please."

It was just so human-like, I had to smile.

Then my other feline addition, Grayson, is a big gray tabby boy who loves to snuggle so much that he will tuck his head under my chin and just lie in my arms like a baby. And is he a talker! Good gracious! As soon as I come in the door at night, he’s yapping to me about his day and he doesn’t really stop until we get a good cuddle going.

Isn’t it amazing how every animal has his or her own personality?

Then there are the shelter babies. Just a few weekends ago, I attended the Chambers Apothecary Open House with five little kittens who were such a hit, we had quite a crowd going. Everyone just loved them so much.

Well, one of the babies, an all black little boy – sound familiar? – was incredibly upset when I woke him up to take him out of his cage on a trip. I’m not kidding, the whole ride over there I kept checking in on them to make sure they were okay in the carrier and that little boy just gave me the dirtiest looks you can imagine.

And the derision didn’t stop when the van did. All day long I would coo at them and ask them if they were having fun and that little kitten gave me the stink-eye every time. Every time!

One of my favorite stories came from years ago with a little Boston Terrier. I took him out to talk to some kids at a day care and we were on the way back to the shelter. This little guy had to sit on the console in the truck between me and the passenger seat and watch out the windshield, almost like he was driving.

Every time we would come to a stop, he would assume it was time to get out and he would stand up. At one of the red lights, I said out loud, "Not yet, buddy, but we’re almost there."

He plopped his butt back down and heaved quite a sigh. It sounded so much like a put-out person, I had to laugh. It was adorable!

Then the other day I was Facebook stalking some folks I know (I’m not a huge fan of Facebook, so I’m not on it personally, but sometimes I check out what my siblings and friends are doing), and I came across a video of what people were calling "the cat that looks like a human."

You guys, it bordered on creepy. There was just something about this cat’s face – the set of the eyes, the nose, something that gave it an incredibly homosapien quality. Everyone was speculating that it was the result of a witch’s curse or some other karmic retribution on a human.

You gotta love the theories on the internet.

Whatever the case, the cat had an incredibly human look. If you’d like to see it email me at cvascomm@cvas-pets.org and I’ll send you the link, but be prepared for a moderate level of creep factor.

Every once in a while we’ll have animals at the shelter who I swear are attempting to speak. It’s a little more than making a noise on command – we do have a few of those guys and gals come in (the ones who know to bark when someone says speak), but what I’m talking about are the guys who issue a series of quiet-sounding barks in repetition.

I’ll say, "What else happened?" and they’ll make the noise again.

My sister adopted a cat from us – orange-and-white – and he’s the kind of boy who basically thinks humans are only around for the food they provide. She says he will wander the house making little cat trilling noises to himself. She said he’s in a totally separate room from her and she’ll hear him out there just yakking away.

My cats will holler at me when they want something and I’ll try to match their tonal quality. Sometimes we can carry on quite a conversation for an extended period of time. I’m never really terribly certain what it is we’re talking about, but it sometimes it feels kind of like speaking to another person.

Animals are often an incredibly bright spot in our lives and they can be certainly bring a whole lot of joy when we need a pick me up.

And sometimes, if you’re watching, you can see just how very human many of them can be.

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Jennifer Vanderau is the Director of Communications for the Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter and can be reached at cvascomm@cvas-pets.org. 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. CVAS also operates thrift stores in Chambersburg and Shippensburg. Help support the animals at the shelter by donating to or shopping at the stores.