Women in Love - The Italian Cat

When one thinks about it, it seems only natural that animals in different countries should only understand their country's language such that a dog in England will respond to English as a dog in Korea, bad example... a dog in France should only respond to French. But this is on the premise that animals actually understand human language. My understanding is that actually they might grow accustomed to certain sounds and attach them to corresponding actions but really its the way things are said, the intonation, the tone, the body language etc that actually communicates. So that the following passage in Lawrence's Women in Love is quite funny:

Birkin rang the bell for tea. They could not wait for Gudrun any
longer. When the door was opened, the cat walked in.

'Micio! Micio!' called Hermione, in her slow, deliberate sing-song. The
young cat turned to look at her, then, with his slow and stately walk
he advanced to her side.

'Vieni--vieni qua,' Hermione was saying, in her strange caressive,
protective voice, as if she were always the elder, the mother superior.
'Vieni dire Buon' Giorno alla zia. Mi ricorde, mi ricorde bene--non he
vero, piccolo? E vero che mi ricordi? E vero?' And slowly she rubbed
his head, slowly and with ironic indifference.

'Does he understand Italian?' said Ursula, who knew nothing of the
language.

'Yes,' said Hermione at length. 'His mother was Italian. She was born
in my waste-paper basket in Florence, on the morning of Rupert's
birthday. She was his birthday present.'-p.260
 

And that's the end of that. No one objects, no philosophising, nothing, just natural acceptance. Does anyone else find this odd?