Recently I read a study that showed that people are most likely to go to their romantic partner when we're feeling down. Who placed second? Not family, not friends, but their pets. Reading about this, I naturally thought about my relationship with my dogs. When I'm glum, I do often enjoy the quiet presence of my dog over interaction with my friends and family. Are people crazy for confiding in their pets?
I don't think so. We cannot be so quick to dismiss our pets' intelligence and emotional capacity as non-existent. This is not by any means to suggest that they posses even close to the same emotional capacity as humans, or that they even are aware of their emotions, but I think there is some understanding. I have fallen down my stairs and my dog, Scout, came running to my side whimpering - clearly upset and possibly concerned for my well-being. I saw a story in the media where a woman was on a jog with her dog. She fell off a cliff suffering an enormous fall that left her incapacitated for several days in a canyon. Her dog, Taz, stayed by her side until he 'realized' that she could not move herself and required outside help. Taz ran some five miles out of the canyon, ran up to a man and got him to follow him back to his owner. Could a dog do this without having some level of concern for his owner?
After seeing that it seems dogs can to some degree, at least in the owner's interpretation (I understand their might be some false hope), reciprocate their affection to their owner, does it seem so crazy that people choose to seek comfort from their pets?