One of the greatest joys of life is the unconditional love of a pet. You come home form work, and there's your dog, happy to see you. It's been a long day, and your cat comes up and nudges you with his head.
It's more than that though. It's something we could all learn a lesson from. Say your dog chews on something that he shouldn't have. You yell at him. You may even bop him on the nose for it. However, no matter what, he'll still come back looking for a good ear scratch and belly rub. Ignore her for a while, yet still she'll come and (at least try to) curl up near you. Cats are really no different, even for being more "independant" pets. No matter what you do they'll still come by looking for an ear scratch and to give a little love back.
People could learn a lot from this type of behavior. You pet will always love you. They will always come back to you. Yet people, when hurt once, tend to not want to come back. Animals love unconditionally, humans don't always. Granted, severely abused animals tend to avoid their abusers, and with good reason. Fortunately, humans tend to usually do the same. However, that's an entirely different subject. Think of how much different things might be in this world if everyone took a cue from their pets. Sure, your office mate may have stabbed you in the back for the promotion, but you don't shun them, you still work with them (and politely too). Maybe your loved one has done something which hurts you. Don't just walk away from them, you loved them once, you loved them up until you knew, chances are there's still plenty about them that you love.
Of course, there's no way to directly correlate between the love an animal has and the love a human has. As humans we tend to read human emotions into our pets, so what we perceive is more of a reflection of what we want to see as opposed to what may really be there. Still, there is no denying that a pet will come back to you with affection and usually seeking some affection as well.
Call it what you will, we love our pets because of how they behave towards us and how they make us feel. Imagine how much better the world might be if we all treated each other the way we liked to be treated by our pets?
