Pain?

Sometimes I wonder if cats and dogs feel much pain. When our dog was a pup, she would crash into the patio door or something else many times a day, head first and never acted like it hurt. Now that our 2 kittens are well acquainted and playing together more, they crash into things or roll off the couch during a wrestling match, onto a wood floor and just keep going. I cringe whenever they do it. It gets pretty wild around here at times. Enya and Blaze love the stairs for chasing and wrestling. They're fun, but Blaze has to learn the house rules. He's doing pretty well. He isn't as persistant as Enya, which helps. I'm glad the intros went so easily and that they all get along well. I think our dog would love a house full of cats.

Yes, animals can feel pain just like we do. With dogs, it's usually pretty evident because they give us signs such as limping, or just acting "off". Cats are much harder because by instinct they tend to hide any pain. You usually don't realize they are hurt until it's really bad or an injury is in plain sight. Now days, more vets are using "pain killers" for pets after surgery.

I know that they do feel pain. It just amazes me how they can take such a blow and not be phased by it. Our cats wrestle beside the patio door and I hear many head bumps on the window, but they just keep going.