Fade In: The dining room of Chateau Steelypips, at dinner time.
"Can I have a piece of chicken?"
"No."
"But I really like chicken."
"That's nice. The answer is still no."
"But I really like chicken. Pleeeease?"
"For the last time, no."
"OK." Pause "Can I have a cookie? Pleeeease?"
Fade out
Of course, I shouldn't really complain-- I could have Kate's view of this whole exchange:
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Oh, I can totally see the dog saying this in a sweet three-year-old voice. Pleeeassse?
After 100,000 years (or whatever) of humans and dogs co-evolving, it is hard for us NOT to anthropomorphize canine behavior, and hard for dogs NOT to caninopomorphize human behavior.
When my dog gives me that look, I find myself thinking: "Oh, she's being so patient and polite, hoping I'll get the message..."
Do dogs really offer us unconditional love, or just that we've evolved to believe that dogs offer us unconditional love?
I don't know.
At our house (2 samoyeds) we frequently muse on whether humans domesticated dogs or vice versa.
Either way, it seems to fill a need for both species. And the level of communication and cooperation between disparate minds offers a small amount of hope for the future. On a good day.
I object less to the view than to the considerable breeze created by the tail-wagging . . .