> I know. To qualify as having empathy, all the cat is
> to do is have awareness that the big two-legged thing
> that dropped something on its foot is in pain. It
> doesn't have to give a damn.
I used to have a really goofy cat who acted a lot like a dog -- would play fetch, always wanted attention. One time when I was upset about something and he was sitting next to me on the couch -- he started licking my hand, something he never did otherwise (I wasn't sweaty).
Generally I agree that it's hard to see empathy in cats, but sometimes the tests for awareness of self and others appear to suggest that other humans are automata, too.
-- Andy