Girls Write Out: Who's Smarter?

Friday, December 31, 2010

You can blame my wireless network for this blog being late today, but you have all weekend to read it, so I'm not going to worry. The birds in the picture have the right idea. It is a bit freaky, especially when it doesn't always work.

Mel and I watched a show last night at the suggestion of a friend of ours, and we watched it wirelessly from Netflix instant play. The show was called Dogs Decoded. It showed how dogs really make an effort to connect with us by reading our expressions. I thought I was going to have to tie Mel down to keep him watching, but he settled down after a few minutes and got interested in it, and I was able to release him and sit more comfortably.

We watched how wolves were bred to connect better and better with mankind until they "got" us, and were able to read our intentions and emotions in our faces. This does show remarkable intelligence. I had a dog named Laddy who would sit in front of me, stare into my eyes sadly when I was crying, and let me hug him.

However, as I mentioned recently, though my cats don't constantly make eye contact with me to see how I'm feeling or whether I'm going to feed them or let them outside, they read body language. When I walk toward the cabinet, they congregate for food. When I walk to the door, they race each other to get outside if it's nice. When I'm in pain, they will congregate on my lap and chest and purr until I'm feeling better. God made all kinds of creatures for all kinds of reasons.

Horses are also very intelligent. I had a horse when I was a child. His name was...wait for it...Laddy. Yes, I know, I lacked imagination back then, but I named everything, even our trees, so I was running out of names. Anyway, this horse, Laddy, knew what I wanted before I did. When I needed to get the cattle in, that horse could cut cattle without my touching the reins. One day when I was riding bareback with a friend I made the mistake of guiding Laddy up an incline. My friend slid off the back of the horse and dragged me with her. My leg fell directly beneath Laddy's hoof as it was coming down. But he didn't follow through with the step. When he realized my leg was beneath his hoof, he stumbled to keep from stepping down on it. He was one smart horse and I loved him dearly.

Of course, after the show about dogs last night, Mel and I got to talking about why dogs looked at one particular side of the human face in order to read them. This led to the discussion about the fact that someone who is lying will always look to the left. And so we started trying to lie to each other and see if the trick worked. It doesn't. Mel thinks it does, but he has a good imagination, plus he knows me too well. He thought he caught me glancing to the left a time or two, but then I learned to just look into his left eye when I was lying, and I fooled him.

I'm always fascinated by intelligence in any form. My horses, dogs, cats, over my lifetime, have had a major impact on me. I know I talk about cats a lot, but we humans do love our animals. Want to share any good animal stories?

Labels: cats, dogs, horses, humans, liars

Hannah Alexander
posted at 3:46 PM
Comments (7)

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7 Comments:

At 8:27 AM, Diann Hunt said...: Okay, the cartoon picture CRACKED ME UP!!! :-)

Every day is an adventure with our dog and now my mom's cat. It's truly life with Garfield and Odie. I'm learning a lot about both species. Also learning they get as jealous as kids. :-)

Still, animals are lots of fun to cuddle and love.
At 9:10 AM, jel said...: that was a cool cartoon,

hope ya missed the storms yesterday!
At 10:50 AM, Southern-fried Fiction said...: I had a friend who was horse crazy. She always made me ride with her, usually behind her. One time, we were allowed to exercise a friend of my mom's horse, but it wasn't as nice as Laddy. It decided it wanted to go home, and once it was headed in that direction, it went too fast up an incline. I started to fall off (I was the rear passenger) and I dragged my friend off with me. Unfortunately, she broke her arm. Hey, I never claimed to be a horsewoman.
At 12:21 PM, Hannah Alexander said...: Yes, I got a kick out the cartoon, too.
You know, Diann, you could include some really funny scenes with those two animals, you write such wonderful humor. Our cats are SO jealous, which is why it amazes me when they will abide each other when it comes to climbing onto me and purring when I'm in pain. They typically won't share, and one will jump down when another jumps up.

Yes, jel, we missed the storms, thank goodness. I don't need more stress right now.

Oh, Ane, that's hilarious, though I'm sorry about your friend's broken arm. I've never again had a horse I loved as much as Laddy. I've been tossed on my head, I have had one horse run away with me, I've been knocked off when a horse intentionally went under a low limb. There are mean horses just like there are mean people. Laddy wasn't as gentle with others as he was with me. We were just best friends.
At 2:13 PM, jel said...: I use to like horses but haivng to chase my dad's horses, every time they got out. I don't like them,

I would like to have a baby donkey, :)

found some great green tea, the other day.
Celestial seasonings
(candy cane lane) boy was it good!!
At 4:15 PM, Hannah Alexander said...: One reason my mother misses her home in the country so much is because for the past several years, we've allowed the neighbor to graze his horses and donkeys on the 20 acres. She loved looking at them, and the donkeys apparently woke her up in the mornings with their braying.
At 8:27 PM, jel said...: that was music to my ears hearing, dad's donkey braying in the moring!