Well clearly animals are not purely instinctual.

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They certainly do have a more advanced thought process than that...I mean if I have one of my cats in my room and the door is shut and they need to get out they communicate that to me. Sure its not the same as talking but they walk over to the door and meow and look at me, or if my door is shut and one wants in they let me know. Also The cat I had before and the cats at my house now will come up to me if I am upset and start purring and being affectionate, and i don't think that is an instinctual thing to do seems like empathy/sympathy. When I was in the psych ward the last time I was able to leave for a limited amount of time but had to go back....the first psych ward I was in had nothing like that. But anyways I came home for a couple hours and my cat came and sat in my lap for like 15 minutes purring like he knew I was having a difficult time and missed me. Sometimes I think it would be intresting to learn about animal psychology because from what I have observed more than simple survival instinct seems to play a role in their behavior at times.

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Dogs are like that, too. I swear mine could read my mind sometimes.

I absolutely believe animals are sentient (we are just one more animal who is a bit more advanced with tools) This is why I became vegan.

I love dogs just as much as cats, and Ive certainly had them communicate with me...hell dogs even play mind games and it can be pretty funny at times. I would like to have a dog but its not a possibility right now living at my moms house and all. And one time when I was in highschool I was going for a walk and someones vicious dogs got out and wanted to attack me they where growling and crap so I grabbed a stick thinking Id have to try and fight them off...but then out of nowhere a big black dog that looked kind of old came out and growled at those dogs and let me get some distance while defending me and the dog kept looking at me like he was letting me know they had it under control. I don't think a dog defending a random human from other dogs is an instinctual behavior.

Mine scratches at the door to let me know.

They're very smart animals, but I don't know if they're capable of empathy. Or, they could be but just don't care. Cotton certainly doesn't.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmggl84g62M[/youtube]

Dogs are known to be quiet competent at recognizing moods. Part of that, is because of them being pack animals too, so in a dog pack it is important to know the mood of the other pack-dogs. The interesting stuff is, that dogs, that get raised with humans, are able to learn to recognize human emotions too.

Most pack mammal animals are quiet good at it. There is as well an youtube video of an dolphin, that hurt himself with an lost fishing-hook and wrapped itself in the cord of it. He could not free himself, so he went to a nearby spot, that was visited often by divers for Manta-watching during night. There he approached one of the divers, until the diver freed him of the hook and the cord. From an scientific view its quiet amazing, because the dolphin did not only memorize the spot, but as well the happening on that spot (fish friendly divers watching Mantas), as well as the understanding that humans have quiet good hand abilities and were able to free him. It may not sound amazing but in the end it shows the possibility of virtual thinking: "I have a problem: Which possibilities are known to me, that could help me solve that problem."

Dogs can also formulate a strategy: On one occasion we gave our two dogs a hide-chew. One dog ate his immediately and the other dog just sat nibbling his a while, but wasn't really hungry. After the first dog had finished eating his chew, he went and fetched a dog toy and started throwing it up into the air in front of the other dog and trying to get him interested in playing with the toy too. After a couple of minutes the second dog could resist no more and took the dog toy... the first dog immediately grabbed the uneaten chew and ran away with it! The second dog was like DUH! I've been outsmarted. It creased me up, seeing the blatant strategy work.

My Aunts friend was pounding out some steaks for dinner and her cat kept hanging around begging,so she shooed it off.Later she heard a crash from the bedroom and when she investigated there was a hat box from a top shelf in the closet that had fallen to the floor.There was no way this fell on its own.When she went back to the kitchen one of the steaks was gone.
The cat planned that out.
My old female iguana was begging my daughter for a bite of cheese,the iguana loved it,my daughter wouldn't share and the iguana got down on the floor,went over to my daughters hat,and s**t in it.This was no accident,this Ig always pottied on a piece of newspaper behind the aquarium.I always wondered where that expression" who s**t in your hat" came from.

I would be reading a book in bed and my cat is curled up next to me as soon as I put my bookmark in the book she takes off and hides in the living room as she knows she's going to go to bed in her basket.
Then she'll wait to I go to sleep and then when I wake in the middle of the night she's on my bed again.