Animals are such complex and beautiful beasts. Of course they come in all shapes and sizes, breeds, and varieties. To be able to own and have one of your own is as much of a responsibility as it is a blessing.

I am a proud owner of two horses, two goats, roughly ten cats, and three dogs. I hold my small menagerie close to me heart, so it was hard going away to college and not knowing whether they'd recognize that blue eyed, dirty blonde haired, little girl they grew up with. Now before this gets too sentimental, you remember those videos that you see (mainly on facebook) about people coming home from college, or time in the military and they get a warm welcome from their pets? Yeah, this is what this article is going to be about this week.

Let's start with my dogs. I have a Golden Retriever who's like my little shadow named Faith, an incorrigible Chocolate Lab named Mimzy, and a happy go lucky Beagle named Ellie Mae. When I came home the last two were more than thrilled, they weren't crying or anything too dramatic. But they were shaking quite a bit. Faith however was more wary.

She looked as if she'd seen a ghost, unsure what to think when I called her name. The poor thing was in shock because she'd thought I'd left her behind forever. but once she got over it she was practically in my lap the rest of the night.

Now the six cats I have outside don't really care about whether I'm home or not, they've got better things to worry their little heads about. But the indoor cats are a completely different story altogether.

Inside I've have a black cat named (you guessed it) Blackie, two orange tabbies, the oldest named Bullseye, and the younger named Bugga Boo, then I have a small grey and white cat named Baby Kitty. Baby Kitty didn't know who I was when I came home, I picked her up to hold her and she started to hiss and growl at me. I had no idea what was going on, and my mom told me to put her down before she bit me in face. It took her a few minutes to recognize who I was. Then she was back to her normal self.

And then Bugga Boo wasn't acting like himself around me, he wasn't as aggressive as Baby Kitty but he was definitely keeping his distance from me, which wasn't normal. It wasn't until I showered and got the city stink off of me that he realized that I was back. The only way I can make sense of it is through smell.

As for my other pets, they didn't seem to care whether I was gone or not, being that they lived outside, sometimes they wouldn't see me for days. So it didn't phase them that I was gone for such a long time.

I may not know a lot about animal behavior, but I do know one thing, they do care when you're gone, and depending on the relationship with their owner, reactions to returns are just as diverse as animals are.