Think dogs don’t reason as we do? Think their reasoning is less precise? That they act only on instinct? Have no purpose of forethought? Think they can’t talk?
Consider the shoe by the front door.
The shoes belong to the “dog-owner” who has been upstairs blogging obsessively, ignoring his dog’s persistent pestering. Sebastian pawed, scratched his back feet on the carpet, and barked. At first the blogger ignored him and then chastened for interrupting the important message he was preparing to send into cyberspace.
Dog surrenders. Disappears for 10 minutes. Returns and quietly, without a word, jumps up to his customary place on the sofa in the blogger’s office.
Blogger completes his thoughtfully reasoned cyberspace communication and decides it’s time to take the little guy out. Blogger goes downstairs, takes off his slippers, puts on the left shoe next to the leash by the front door, and winces.
Sebastian has left a perfectly directed, perfectly contained puddle in the shoe. No evidence to the side of the shoe or the back or front of the shoe. All of the message is IN the shoe, nature striking back at cyberspace with the clearest of messages carefully delivered with forethought and drone-like precision:
“Dad, you really pissed me off!!”
Views from the Edge 
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What a nice tidy little dog. After all, if you gotta go, you gotta go. So, how thoughtful to contain it so carefully … ? Or maybe not. Maybe it was like my Snuffy peeing on my pillow when I closed the door to my consultation room back in Connecticut. I knew it was Snuffy, ’cause his brother had a back problem and couldn’t jump up on the bed. Otherwise, most of the time I suspected Snuffy of the naughty deeds, but had no proof.
Really, though, how could a creature with such a sweet face possibly do anything vengeful?
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Sounds like Snuffy and Sebastian have similar thought patterns, vocabulary…and “speech” patterns. There was not one drop outside the shoe. Not one. It is a targeted message if ever there was one. “These shoes, Dad, were made for walking. You’re supposed to walking me. I’ve need to walk for a long time. I can’t hold it any more. Good luck with the shoe!”
Thanks for sharing. That sweet face is exactly that: sweet. He’s also VERY smart and equally persistent. At 13 years old, he still looks and acts like a puppy.
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G, you give humans far too much credit for reason. I’m sure bomb-sniffing dogs in, say, Baghdad, thought to themselves, “All these stinking corpses just because George Bush had a bone to pick with Sadaam when Afghanistan wasn’t enough. And they say humans don’t recriminate like dogs do!” Apology to Sebastian for implying any likeness between him and Buddy’s commander-in-chief. I’m sure he was only trying to keep Mom’s floor clean.
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Sebastian and I thank you for this, Chris. Sebastian has offered to take you out for sushi at your convenience wherever you like, except for Baghdad or Afghanistan. He’ll meet you at the front door. He just asks that you take your shoes off when you come to the house. Leave them by the front door while you come upstairs to say.
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