Cat Consciousness, and Ours

I had to get a CAT scan the other day, so naturally I wanted tell our cat, Andy, about it. And I said to him -- and I swear I didn't use a silly baby talk voice -- that since he was a cat I thought he would want to know about it, even though he doesn't have any idea what most human stuff is all about.

Then I had a little epiphany. It struck me that his not knowing didn't mean anything at all. It's not like his intelligence is lacking because felines aren't as developed as humans. Sure, he has what we recognize as intelligence, as in being clever about how he begs for food, or how he plays. But I'm not talking about that. I mean that his conscious is complete in itself and is not an inferior version of human or higher consciousness.

If I recall Aboriginal cosmology correctly, they believe that each creature or species undergoes a dream journey until it reaches the point where it needs to be in the manifest world. We all have our place, our role, and it's not a hierarchy. I don't know how this fits with evolution, etc., and I'm not putting forth a scientific theory. But that's just the way it seemed to me for a brief instant as I looked into Andy's cat eyes.