Talking Animals
The other day I was thinking about what I would wish for if I had three wishes. One of the things that came up was understanding what all animals are communicating. I feel that just this one skill would give me a lot of money over time, and it would be fun as well.
This is until someone asked me if it would still be cool if all you heard from your dog was..."I am hungry, I am tired, I want to mate, I am hungry, feed me, I am tired, I want to mate." Over and over again. How true, I am sure if dogs were to talk, that is all they would say over and over. Maybe Carlsson would add in the need to chew or rig something apart, and Penfold would talk about his taste for poop. I am sure chimps would actually be a little more interesting to listen to than dogs, and would talk about sex a lot more, but still not much going on besides drives to do stuff. Actually knowing what animals are thinking or saying might be very boring when you think about it.
If you were to learn what your pets were saying to you at all times, would you still want the pets? If Carlsson would say to me, I want to walk, I want to sleep, I want to poop, I want to chew, I want to play, would that be fun? Sometimes I like pets because they do not talk to me at all. It is fun training them, and figuring out what the want next. If everyone knew what their pets were saying, would having a pet be less fun, or more fun? What would your pet be saying?
posted by Jonathan @ 7:27 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
The only time I think it would be wonderful to know what an animal is thinking and would say if it could is when it's in pain. When Raider was in pain in his last few days, I would have given anything to be able to figure out what was wrong and make it better.
But the idea of animals talking presumes something else: The idea of animals being conscious of their thoughts in a way that would allow them to be expressed. What we love about our pets isn't just their silence--it's their innocence, even when they do bad things, of ill intent or bad thoughts. They just are, and we love them for it. If we--and they--knew what they were thinking, that would ruin it, wouldn't it?
I think Max would say, "Huh?" a lot of the time. He's so clueless sometimes--happy go lucky. He makes me laugh.
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