Do your pets understand laughter? Do they understand it’s a good thing when they make you laugh? Do they do things on purpose to make you laugh? Do they even “laugh” themselves?
Mine do.
What Murphy Does to Make Me Laugh
Murph can be quite the clown when he wants to, but his most favorite way to get me to laugh is by stealing socks. He’ll snag a dirty one from the dirty clothes, run up to me with tail wagging and eyes bright, and wait for me to say, “Oooo! Whatcha got there, puppy? Give me that, you Sock Snatcher!”
I pretend to be mad at him and stomp towards him like he’s in big trouble, but this makes him “laugh.” In his own unique way. He’ll run all around, semi-sort of trying to dodge my efforts at capturing him, all the while his tail wagging like mad.
It’s a fun game, for me and him both, but what’s remarkable is he seems to understand it makes me laugh. And he seems to like it when I do and he’s the cause of it.
What the Cats Do To Make Me Laugh
Murph’s “jokes” seemed to be more premeditated. I do believe he thinks, “Hey, this would be a good time to act silly and make Mom laugh.”
The cats, on the other hand, aren’t that calculated about it. But they do understand playtime and they definitely understand laughter. More importantly, they understand when they’re the cause of it and seem to like that spotlight.
Two surefire ways guaranteed to get me rolling is when they (1) chase each other at high speeds through the house and pounce on each other, or (2) when they “stalk” me as I enter the playroom, wiggle their butts as I walk towards one of their huts, and right as I reach it they zoom across, through the hut, to tackle my ankles. It’s so ridiculous you just can’t help but laugh!
And I can tell they think it’s funny too based on how they wag their tails. Yessiree, that tells the tale of laughter in and of itself.
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