In this example, haar is used as a >>cohesive device to avoid having to repeat the name of the owner of the cat or the cat itself (both of which have been used earlier in the text).

In the second example, where the writer reports on differences between the Dutch and Belgians, hun land is used to avoid having to say Nederland which would have sounded repetitive just after Nederlanders .

Below you find a list of the possessive pronouns in Dutch. These are the stressed forms, but it is important to note that pronouns also have an unstressed counterpart. See >Stressed and Unstressed Pronouns for more information about the difference between their stressed and unstressed forms.

More information about the difference between the formal and informal second-person possessive pronouns uw and jouw is given in Politeness.

Ons/onze is the only possessive pronoun that declines according to the gender of the noun it accompanies: onze for de -words, ons for het -words, as you can see in the text of The Lord's prayer in Dutch (from http://www.gebed.nl/frame_vreemde_talen.htm):

Vader and schuld are de-words, but brood is a het-word, hence onze vader, onze schuld, but ons brood.

Pronouns of the third person singular are divided into masculine, feminine and neuter. There is more information about this in >Gender and Pronouns.

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