Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

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?"

i-973834cadaaef5f8dd141e194bd4e707-sm_dinner.jpg

Fade out

Of course, I shouldn't really complain-- I could have Kate's view of this whole exchange:

i-32adc51d83c22e5181ff1da48d6d89cc-sm_dinner_tail.jpg

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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.

By Dave Gill (not verified) on 23 Feb 2007 #permalink