Paula was just putting the finishing touches on the evening's
meal when she heard the familiar sounds of her cat, Nellie,
playing soccer in the family room suddenly interrupted by a
loud crash. Moments later, Nellie leaped up onto the kitchen
counter, politely tapped Paula on the cheek, and deposited a
shard of pottery on the countertop. Was she confessing to her
crime or presenting her Mom with the remains of what had been
her favorite vase?
Sci fi writer Joe Haldeman, immersed in a particularly bizarre
scene involving a battling whale and shark, temporarily lost
his concentration when his apparently telepathic cat, Pete,
delivered a stinging swat on the behind, then calmly strolled
away. Everybody's a critic!
They may not be fluent in human languages, but our pets can
usually get their points across pretty clearly, and sometimes
painfully. Keeping the lines of communications open sometimes
requires a bit of ingenuity from both parties, but the
conversation is usually worth the effort. Bob from New Jersey,
a caller on a recent radio show about communicating with pets,
found his nightly ritual of reading bedtime stories to his
clever little chihuahua a valuable bonding experience. He
swore his dog understood every word and they both enjoyed
their special story time.
Much or our pets' communication is an expression of their
emotional connection with us. My friend Dorie told me about
her cat's strange behavior when her husband, Bill, was
recovering from surgery. Kaz suddenly began to deliver dead
rodents at the foot of their bed - something she'd never done
before - and she stopped the deliveries as soon as Bill was
able to get around again.
In his popular book, The Cat Who Went to Paris, Pete Gethers
wrote about the death of his father, a confirmed cat-hater and
one of the few humans immune to the considerable charms of the
world-renowned traveling cat, Norton. But in the last weeks of
the senior Gethers' life Norton devoted himself to comforting
the increasingly frail man. Norton spent hours at his side and
despite his considerable weight (from all that rich French
food), managed to land lightly in his lap without harming his
painful arthritis bones. In the end, Norton broke down the old
man's resistance and won his heart.
Of course, most of the time our pets' messages are purely
pragmatic. Sniffles, a tough bunny who ruled her child care
center with a firm paw, communicated her need for time off
from class mascot duties with a simple language. She growled
when she was annoyed with the rowdy kids, and simply pushed
their hands away with a toss of the head when she'd had enough
petting and wanted some privacy. More altruistic, Myrna's cat
once woke her up to alert her that intruders were breaking
into her center city apartment.
Highly sensitive service dogs who work with epileptics can
sense when a seizure is imminent. One collie mix trained by
Support Dogs alerts his owner and fetches a phone to get help
as much as 30 minutes before the seizure occurs.
Lassie never seemed to have any trouble warning people of
danger or getting help when Timmy had fallen down the well.
But today's professional rescue dogs actually go to school to
learn a very special rescue language consisting of traditional
dog sounds and sign language. When the rescuer finds an
injured person he returns to his handler and gets his
attention with an "indication" - barking, jumping on
the
handler, or lying down. Disaster dogs can give two kinds of
"find" reports telling their handlers "I found
a live victim"
or "I found a dead victim."
But most of our companions don't have anything so dramatic
to
communicate. When things are really slow, they may have to
manufacture their own drama. Becky, one of my more eccentric
guinea pigs, occasionally passed the time by doing bird
imitations. To throw me off, she'd stop as soon as I entered
the room to find out how a bird got into the house. But
eventually I caught her in the act, and that seemed to ruin
the fun since she never did it again.
Jeanne, a friend who lives with three cats, claims her Siamese
spends her days wandering through the apartment grumbling and
"talking to herself." Is she delusional? Who knows?
But maybe,
like many humans, some animals just enjoy the sound of their
own voices.
Return to Creature Features Library