I know we've all experienced animals that seem to sense things before we humans catch on to them. We hear about animals acting odd before catastrophic events such as earthquakes. I was thinking more on an every day level, such as when an animal recognizes that someone is afraid of it.
I find it interesting that animals seem to know who is afraid, who they trust and who they need to stay away from. My best friend's cat exhibits this behavoir on a grand scale. When I first visited, the cat would only come out for a few moments. When he did, he would walk no closer to me than arms length. I might be able to get a quick stroke down his back before he would jet off. Mr. Cat has the well known habit of only liking his owner. She is the only one that can hold him for any length of time. He will curl up with her and ignore anyone else. If strange people are around, you'll have a difficult time finding him.
The last few times I've visited, Mr. Cat has shown an interesting new turn. He will now meander back and forth between she and I. He is even funnier when she and I are both sitting on the couch. He will lay with one of us for a while, then maybe the other. This past visit, he started laying between us. He stretches his body so that he has part of himself touching both of us at any time. He's a fairly large cat so even if she is at one end and I'm at the other end of the couch, he can still reach us both.
Ever since the first time I visited her, I've got the feeling that Mr. Cat might be a little jealous that I was trying to steal her away from him. Now that he's realizing that he is my friend as well, he seems to be more accepting of me. I can even pick him up now, all-be-it for a short period of time.
He got a suprise this weekend during my visit. We had a little New Year's get together. He hid when he heard strangers in the apartment. After a while, he must have recognized some of the voices. He ventured out. He hopped up on the end of the couch to greet my friend's cousin. He quickly came to the realization there were other people there and he bolted off to his hiding place. He did manage to come out later and hang nearby.
This is just one example of what I'm talking about, but it seems that most animals exhibit similar tendencies.
