"What we do not see in other animals is imagination, the abiity to conceptualise something which does not actually exist."

No imagination??!? Have you ever observed a sleeping dog or cat? There paws twitch fitfully, there noses crinkle up, and sometime, they startle themselves awake from the vividness of their dreams.

It is preposterous to think that such imaginative powers shut down whenever they are awake. Of course, they have the ability to "conceptualize something that does not actually exist"! When they hear the rustling of of fallen leaves, their imagination immediately projects several things which could be causing it. They explore more closely, primed to take various courses of action depending on what they find. Didn't some one once say, "Curiosity killed the cat?" Fortunately, they have nine lives!