Animals are or can be smarter than most people give them credit for. And that's not "humanizing" them. I got stories.... And they feel loyalty, love, grief, joy, depression. They also figure out real quick where it is safe and where it is not for them to be.
Brings to mind a story my youngest brother tells from one of his college classes- probably psycology. The teacher asked the class to define the main difference between people and animals.
The "correct" answer was that people can reason, and animals can't. My brother (being a big mouth like myself) said," Wait a minute! I have a Golden Retriever that can reason better than half the people in this class". (That might have been true- Buford was amazing!)
Of course, that pissed off half the people in the class. The other half knew who Bob was referring to.....
