Take this for what it is worth: Someone (I cannot remember who) said that in many alein abduction cases the aliens talk to their human subjects like a vet talks to a frightened pet during a visit.

Many people think of dolphins and whales as "just" animals, but I tend to look at them as a different form of high intelligence on Earth. Remember Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home? The point I am making is that if we look at other intelligences on this planet who have our same DNA and are also mammals, what might an ETI think of us, or we of them?

And whenver I think of the humans as pets bit, I always think of the original Star Trek episode "The Squire of Gothos", where the "child" Trelane is admonished by his highly evolved parents that if he can't take care of his pets (Kirk and Crew) he won't be allowed to make any more planets!