Animals Understand at Least Some Human Words

True phenomena 1 : When I went to the lower gate to let my dog out, I discovered the gate was locked. A friend asked, "where are you going?" I replied, "to the upper gate to let the dog out." Before I took a step towards the upper gate, my dog left the lower gate and was found waiting on me at the upper gate, when I got there.

True phenomena 2 : While visiting a friend, it became apparent, that her pet bird took a liking to me. The bird chose to sit on my shoulder. After a lengthy conversation, my shoulder needed relief from the lengthy stay of the bird. I reached back to grab the bird and it put up a resistance, while fluttering its wings, almost violently.

The woman asked, "what are you doing?" I replied, "my shoulder needs some relief, so I was going to put the bird on my other shoulder." Instantly, the bird calmed down and walked over to my other shoulder.

True phenomena 3 : Three raccoons came into my house through a window. Having been told wild raccoons can be very violent, I was determined to get my new guests out of the house. To be on the safe side, I grabbed a large knife with one hand and a club with the other. I got close to the raccoons and asked, "would you please leave?"

The raccoons looked at me like children that were being ordered to do an undesirable chore. After hesitation, they slowly started walking towards the exit. To display their grudging feelings, they took about five minutes to get to the exit window, but did follow through with my request and went out the window.

True phenomena 4 : One of my cats responds to my request to leave my van, when asked, about nine times out of ten. I verified, that all of my cats know their name. Each cat looked at me, when I spoke their name.

True phenomena 5 : While visiting a cat hospital, a cat was constantly rubbing my legs and being very friendly. I was there to pick up my cat. The veterinarian said, "that cat is looking for a home." I responded, "that's a nice cat, but I already have a cat and don't need two." At that moment, the cat walked away and would have nothing else to do with me.

Even though cats often won't come when you call them, I believe it's their way of saying, "I will come to you when I want to; I'm the boss here." If anything can be more stubborn than a mule, a cat might be a contender for the prize.