Animals are not dumb, but many people are ignorant.

Recently I began to work with a new crew & one of my co workers was talking about having a problem with her "rescued dog", it's a fast growing puppy with lots of energy & a need to chew. The puppy likes to jump on people & bite at them. I've had dogs like that & was trying to think of a way to help when my friend explained that she had watched a program that suggested that dogs should not have squeaky toys because the squeaky sound simulates the sounds animals make when they are being killed. I never really thought about it & my dog loves her squeaky toys, but always plays with them so that they never squeak -- I thought that was because she didn't like the sound.

Since then I've watched her play with her squeaky toys & realized that she plays the same with her cat. She is always very gentle & 'though she loves to chew, she never chews hard enough to make the toys squeak. The correlation that seemed very real to people had never occurred to me, but apparently my dog knew all about it. It's funny she's an Australian Shepherd a dog that was bred to care for other animals & I've never once worried about her ever hurting her cat or people & now I know that all squeaky toys can rest easily around her. That's right the cat is the dog's pet 'though the cat believes that both the dog & I belong to her. The dog earned her own pet through helping another cat that was very stressed years before & once the dog came to my home & we found a lost kitten, we knew that the dog should get her reward. They met when the kitten was about 4 - 5 weeks old, the kitten hissed & the dog patiently walked up & started licking her & they've been best pals ever since it's been about 7 years now. The dog even taught the cat that it was fun to go for rides, to date, she's the only cat I ever met that willingly got into moving vehicles on a regular basis. I've known many dogs & they all had their unique personalities, I suspect that most animals do & they all seem to learn to talk in their own ways too - I feel guilty that they understand my talking, but I'm clueless to what they are trying to tell me on a regular basis. I watch the two of my pets & there is no question that they communicate with each other even when they are making no sounds that I can hear. I often wonder if they communicate with other animals as easily as they communicate with each other. It doesn't seem like it as I see my dog chasing other animals away from her cat on a regular basis, but maybe they just argue about it rather than agreeing that the other animals should leave the cat alone, the cat never seems worried 'though it's like she always knows that her dog has her back.

As someone that has been an animal lover all my life these things do not surprize me. I was surprized by the lesson of why my dog never squeaks her toys, but I've always had faith that any of my pets were just as cognizant as people if not more than many. I read many stories that explained heroic things that pets have done & many things that wild animals had done as well, but as I thought about my recent discovery I thought about the fact that many people refer to animals as dumb which alludes to the fact that people don't realize they can communicate. My dog cries every time I squeak her toy, now I understand she's telling me not to hurt it. Maybe if you are reading this, you will try harder to understand what animals may be trying to tell you. Thanks for reading this & have a great day, yer pal Mel Bell.