If pets can understand some things we say...could they possibly have familiar spirits?

Question

I'm watching on tv where this dog can count and do math ( a little) Someone said that familiar spirits get into dogs, cats etc. I'm just trying to understand this "familiar spirit" thing. So if an animal can understand you and answer (in their own way)...could it be a spirit in them?(Like when they used to say that black cats were witches' familiars.)

Answer 1

erm intersting never thought about it

Answer 2

Animals aren't processing the language we speak so much as picking up cues in what we say.  They are familiar with a certain pattern of sound.  So when I say "cookie" my dog doesn't know what a cookie is, how they are made, the different varieties, etc.  He just knows that he's getting a treat.  When his behavior angers me I use a tone of voice different from the one I use when I'm saying hello or ready to play with him.  He doesn't pick up on what I say but how I say it.

EDIT: Denie, who says animals don't have emotions?

Answer 3

If we confer the notion of "spirit" or "soul" upon humans,  I see no good reason to exclude animals. I had a dog, who clearly showed complex emotions: confusion, embarrassment, nervousness, anxiety, playfulness. I would not buy, for an instant, the notion that she had no notion of her own existence. I do not know if she feared death. Perhaps that is a unique attribute of humans, I do not know.

In Hindu theology, if you fail to move up in the Karma system, you can be reincarnated as a lower animal, and have to live over again before you get a chance to be a human,  through which you have to go before you can become braman. So there is lots of room for personal interpretation.

Answer 4

spirits don't go in them, but ya animals do have emotions and some are very smart, makes ya think though

Answer 5

Familiarity in animal behavior does not mean that their spirits are communicating with us. Familars or familiar spirits (if they really exist) is a different thing. Pets doing tricks have something to do with the trainings that have become familiar to them and are encouraged by rewards. Yes I believe that every living creature have spirits. Because they are part of nature, there is a possibility that those spirits in certain ways can be influenced by certain individuals who have the capability to conjure nature (or the elements of nature). Familiars among witches could have been animals whose spirits could have been manipulated in some ways.

Answer 6

I've had many pets dogs and cats.They've all been quite remarkable.Both species evolving and becoming civilized along side us.They can do many things.Math and talking are not among them.They can learn to comunicate with us.They do it on their own level not ours.It's not a spirit it's survival.I think giving them human qualities and beliefs is insulting to them.They are dogs and cats and horses.It's our own arrogance thinking of them as human.They're content being animals.I envy them sometimes for that.

Answer 7

Animals are just very smart, and they find very innovative ways to communicate what they want.    They do not have to be possessed to do those things.

Answer 8

Animals are not mystical or magical,  they respond to you the way they do because they have evolved to act a certain way within their own social group, because that is how they best survive.

Wild dogs naturally live in a group, this means they can hunt more effectively, there will be a pecking order and each dog knows his place.

When we keep a dog is responds to us as though we are the leader of the dog pack (unless you have a badly socialised dog). They only understand you in a very limited way and they can only respond in their own way too.

Humans commonly make the mistake of thinking other creatures think like us when they are just not made to do so.

Answer 9

Animals are neither good or bad, they are part of nature.  Animals are only conscious of their instincts, water, food, hunting.  They're not conscious to the meaning of life.  

But, man has always been part of nature.  In mythology, animals are sometimes gods.  That's why a lot of humans are close to animals.  It's in our psyche.

Answer 10

It's a common trick where dogs and even horses have been taught to respond to a subtle cue from a trainer in order to appear as if it is counting or doing math or even being psychic. See "Clever Hans" below.

Regarding familiar spirits, in the world of imagination or myth anything is possible. In the real world, such things are not known to exist.

Answer 11

You have to admit some animals are smarter than we relise.Our

cat watched us open the cupboard so many times.He tried it with both his paws and opened it too.Cats are smart.They can see spirts better than humans.Do spirits possess cats and dogs  

I  do not think so.If they did they would demostrate much more intellegent abilities than normal animals.Iam a psychic i can read animal and peoples minds with ease.I would know.