February 26, 2009
Who Nose? Whose Knows?
The human language is funny. Gretchen tells me that there are lots of human languages, that I just know one and I can tell you, it’s taken me a long time to get the hang of it.
For instance, if you’ve read these posts faithfully, you’ll know I struggle sometimes with homophones — words that sound alike but have different meanings. It’s not that I don’t know the difference between “No” and “Know,” but sometimes my paws get moving so fast at this keyboard, my mind can’t keep up. Therefore, “where” can sometimes be “wear” and “bear” can sometimes come out “bare.” I guess it’s good for a chuckle!
But when you stop to think about it, why did anyone decide to use the word “no” (just for instance) twice? How confusing is that?
Dogs have no such dilemmas. Our language is based on scent, sight, and sound. Scent is the most important. Like this morning, I could smell snow in the air and I as so excited to get outside, I nearly went through the sliding glass door in my desire to smell that snow up close. And when I finally got in the backyard, MY GOD, the scents were beyond amazing. There was a cat in our yard and the scent of cat drives me wild! I ran figure eights throughout the backyard trying to figure out where that dastardly cat raced off, too, but I couldn’t find it. Still, the scent was powerful and made it difficult for me to obey the “come” command. You’ve got to be kidding? Come to you when I’m lost in the language of my nose? Please!
You can imagine how excited I was to get to work once I realized we’d be walking in snow! Our first date was with Ollie and what I love about Ollie is that he knows a good time when he sees one! He was beside himself when he saw us this late-morning and when we headed to Gemma’s house, he just about dragged us down the street! We picked up Gemma and headed to the tennis courts and even though there was no snow on the courts, you can see it in the background of these playful photographs!
We raced ourselves crazy, but then it was time for Gemma to go home, followed by Ollie. I think they must be as worn out as I am.
But our day wasn’t over because we walked from Ollie’s house along the ridge to Chloe’s house. I hadn’t seen Chloe for a long time so it was good to visit, though for Chloe, it’s all about the walk. Gretchen brought her special stretchy leash that she wraps around her waist and Chloe extends that leash all the way out as we walk.
Part of my responsibility is to walk right at Gretchen’s side. Sometimes it’s very hard for me — there are exciting things in the world — but today, after all our walking and playing, I was pretty tired and happy to walk right next to her.
We made our way around the neighborhood like that — Chloe in the lead and me where I should be– when we came upon the most interesting thing. It’s hard to see in this picture, but Chole’s looking right at it!
Well that made us both stop and wonder. This did, too. Humans are funny creatures!
And so we walked from all the strange human things we see everyday, put our noses to the ground (or in the air), and headed back to Chloe’s home. After she raced inside, I begged Gretchen to take us back to the house — my feet were tired! She laughed and told me that humans call feet “dogs” and I could only shake my head is dismay.
Until tomorrow,
Rubin (not to be confused with the sandwich in any way, shape, or flavor!)
