What’s in the pet’s mind?

What’s in the pet’s mind?

I’ve worked with both human and animal clients and out of my experiences I can quite reliably say that every case is individual. Just as people behave differently in their patient roles, so do the animals. At the Veterinary Surgery we have different size cages for the animals waiting for the operations. Some animals just curl up in one of the corner and cast anxious/depressed/angry looks whenever I walk by. A Bichon Frisee dog called Albert was waiting to be picked up today after a hip repositioning. He was staring at me intensely and as far as my dog telepathy goes he was thinking along the lines of ‘ When is my owner back? Tell me, have I been abandoned here or what? Food is ok, but the entertainment side here is a bit poor...’. Some pace around, thump the walls and are generally very vocal about their needs. A cat called Ida was one of the ‘not so quietly suffering-ones’. She rattled her cage with her front paws and judging by her looks it was easy to guess that ‘Let me out of here now, or I’d show you what the true pain is!’ wasn’t far off from her thoughts. Some animal clients can be a bit harder to read. They can either be thinking along the lines of ‘ I’m really grateful of all the help, guys, and do understand the slight discomfort’ or ‘ This is horrible/unfair/scary and YOU are responsible for this. Doing it for a fun, you torturer?’. Quite often I wish that animals and I could understand each other, but then again- I’m not sure if I’d be up for it! Imagine if a pet, waiting to be put down, starts asking ‘Why me? I don’t want to die yet! Please don’t do it... I’m not really that poorly, honest!’. Food for thought.... Meow for the next time.