>In a way, this is not much different from foundational understandings in human–robot interactions, strengthening the claim in many humanities and environmental fields that humans should analytically be considered an animal

That seems a bit reversed to me. As a biologist, I fully agree that humans are animals and a lot of our behavior is evolved instinct not very different from other animals, but the traditional humanities way of thinking is that biology is irrelevant to understanding humans who are thought to be completely influenced by their culture and not their genes.

> But I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the pets didn’t even recognize [the robot cat] as an animal.

This reminds of the "Spy in the wild" BBC series, which takes a different take on that. One of the scene I remember the most is this:

Langur monkeys grieve over fake monkey | Spy in the Wild - BBC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaIH5tLmC8U

Do rabbits dream of electric cats?

Wouldn't it be likely that smell has something to do with why animals don't treat robots as animals? After all, lots of animals use scent to some degree to help identify each other. A robot won't smell like anything they recognise - either friend or foe - so they would likely ignore it.

I did have to lightly edit the title to make it fit, the original is:

"I Bought a Robot Cat for My Rabbit — and Fell Into the Weird World of Animal-Robot Research"

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Very interesting read.

I half expected a reference to the recent game Stray, where a cat finds itself in a robot occupied city and tries to find a way out.

Anyone else get Aineko vibes? Treat your robot pets well - they just might be more important than you think.