Yoyo probably deserves whatever pain she's planning. He's made her life miserable, attacking her whenever he can and driving her off her usual position on the bed.

A friend laughs when I tell him about the situation. "It's payback time," he says. "Susu is going to take her revenge."

This friend knows a lot more about animals than me, but nevertheless, I wonder. Are animals really vengeful, or is there a different set of actions and reactions at play?

I'm reminded of this conundrum a few days later when a reader writes that his dog has just killed the kittens of his wife's cat.

"The cat used to hit him on the nose when he got too close, and he killed her kittens out of revenge," the man writes.

He's quite confident that his dog committed infanticide for this particular reason, but, again, I wonder. Revenge requires planning, as well as understanding the recipient's emotions. I'm not quite sure a dog would have comprehended how a mother cat would feel about her kittens being killed.

I suspect the two actions - the cat hitting the dog and the dog killing the kittens - may not have been related at all. Whether kittens or puppies, babies are always at risk. Some animals recognise babies as sacrosanct; some don't. As breeders know, it is best to keep a mother with babies sequestered away from other members of the breeding programme, at least until the kids have learned to recognise danger.

From the situation described by the reader, both the dog and the cat were "outside animals". The dog wouldn't have even understood that the cat "belonged" to his owner's wife, just that this annoying animal was his prey, as were the little rat-like things she had left alone.

The dog would have probably killed the kittens whether or not their mother had swatted him previously.

In the same way, Susu is getting ready to administer pain to Yoyo's backside. A mild-natured cat, Susu has never initiated an attack on another animal, except for a cockroach who once wandered by and didn't live long enough to learn any lesson about cats.

Thanks to Yoyo's aggressiveness, however, Susu has learned how to respond to his present helplessness. If someone attacks you, then you attack him.

Before I can reach the two, she slaps him hard. He hisses, then clutches at me as I untangle him. He's learned two lessons: never to turn his back on Susu and never play with computer wiring again. I doubt that revenge is part of the lesson.

Humans, it seems, are much more advanced in that direction. 

Questions about your pets? Fax (02) 751 4446 or e-mail laurie@nationgroup.com.

By Laurie Rosenthal