There’s no podcast this week, but I wanted to share an animal-related mystery that I investigated at my son, Dan’s, townhouse when I went there with Frica and Ollie to celebrate Christmas. It’s not that this mystery is anything spectacular. It probably isn’t or wouldn’t be even if we managed to solve it. In the meantime, it’s a good example of the kinds of things animals do to which we would probably assign all kinds of higher brain function were a human to do them. But when a dog or cat does them, well, then it’s a mystery
The facts are pretty straight-forward. Dan moved into a townhouse several months ago and put up the artificial tree with built-in lights that he decorates every year. In his new place, the tree is beside a sliding glass door overlooking a small deck and the rest of the housing complex. The tree is not slanted, but for some reason I was when I took this picture. To the left of the tree you can see the drapes on the door.
This year the tree is missing two components that it’s enjoyed in the past. One is the decorative skirt that covered the base of the tree. The first part of the mystery is why Newman the cat decided to sleep under it for the first time in his life, inspiring Lumpy to drag him out of there. This did not bode well for either the tree or the gifts beneath it, so the skirt went. Here’s a picture of Newman and Lumpy during the family celebration:
Now if you look at the tree carefully, you can see evidence of the second mystery: the lack of lights and ornaments in its lower left corner. What happened to the lights is unknown. However the ornaments, and only those ornaments, were removed. Dan would find them piled up beside the sleeping dog in the morning. None were damaged even though some were quite delicate. When it first happened, Dan replaced the ornaments. But after it became clear that they were not going to survive the night on the tree, he removed them.
So there’s the mystery. Did the ornaments interfere when Lumpy was trying to look through the curtains of the sliding glass door? Was the light from the door such that it created reflections in those ornaments that bothered him for some reason? Or did the reflections or something else about those ornaments carry a positive emotional charge for him, and he removed them to keep them safe? Or maybe the Lumpy theories are all wrong and the cat removed the ornaments and put them next to the sleeping dog in hopes of getting him into trouble.
As of this writing, any or none of these explanations could be the right one. Lumpy is not what anyone would call the Einstein of goldens and for sure his world view is unique. But if he did remove those ornaments, I’m sure he had a very good reason for doing it. And if the cat did, I’m sure he had a good reason, too.
Here’s a final picture of Lumpy to remind us that, no matter how many storms the new year may bring, there’s always time to play in the snow.
