2021 ANIMAL STORIES MAGAZINE

Page 12 2021 PET MAGAZINE LINCOLN DAILY NEWS JANUARY 21, 2021 Continue p there have been times where he has popped his head in my lap when I’m legitimately upset or panicking over something. Our cat Lilith is the same way; she will sleep next to us if we’re sick. At times like that, I’m grateful to my furry companions. I’m not sure how else to react to a creature, that isn’t human, trying harder to make me feel better than some people do at times. Additionally, in a year like the one we just passed, when we cannot see the people we care for, life can get pretty lonely. Human beings have a remarkable ability to reach out and anthropomorphize other animals, essentially treating them like people. This means that some people treat animals like family out of loneliness, which can be unfortunately common. For some, treating pets like family means removing the idea of “ownership” from their vocabulary altogether. For these folks, pets are companions with whom to share each other’s lives. The difference is that the human provides a little more in a physical sense. But pets have emotions and control of their own parts of the relationship; they’re not stagnant. For example, if our cat bites or scratches me, I know that I annoyed her. She was letting me know that she does not want me to do whatever I was doing anymore. Being a cat, she likely wants me to go away for a minute. Cats have their own type of social rules among their own kind. To a cat, a human is a strange,