[lit-ideas] Re: The World and My Dog
- From: Andy <mimi.erva@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:14:08 -0800 (PST)
I had once, years ago, heard or read that dogs have a sixth sense. And in
fact, in a similar case to yours, I'd be cleaning up in the kitchen and my dogs
(two of them at the time) would be in the bedroom, say (far away from the
kitchen in other words), and exactly at the point when I'd be thinking I need
to throw away these scraps, they'd both come walking into the kitchen. This
happened every time at exactly the same point. I think most animals are way
underestimated by humans. I read a thing on how amazed researchers were that a
primate (chimp?) could figure out a way to float a peanut to the top of a tube
to get it out, when children were unable to figure it out.
Andy
________________________________
From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, November 25, 2011 2:57 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: The World and My Dog
The world is doomed. I'm not referring to the Euro or anything high-falutin.
It's just that today in my college e mail I received this: Please RSVP in
reply to this email.
Better news on the dog front. Our border collie mix is now nine years old and
thus about as well-trained as he's going to get. Last week I cooked myself a
steak dinner, set it down on a coffee table, left the room. You know what
happens next, right. The table a mere foot off the ground...the dog about two
feet from steak? The rule is that if something falls on the ground he can eat
it. If it's on a higher surface, he must not. When I returned, he was
attempting telekinesis, trying to stare the steak onto the floor. Now that's a
good dog.
There's more. On another evening, two people and the dog were in the living
room. I quietly put, not dropped, put a piece of chicken skin into the dog's
bowl, which was in another room, fully thirty feet away. I did some things and
then wandered into the next room where a movie's loud previews were playing on
the DVD. The two people were talking. The dog was resting, nearly asleep.
"Funny," I said, "I think for once the dog didn't hear me put food in his
bowl."
No mention of his name. Just that language. Up he got, wandered into the next
room, heading straight for the bowl. Seems to have learned the words "food"
and "bowl." Maybe others.
Thankfully, he hasn't yet mastered telekinesis.
Carry on.
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
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