Even though I was careful not to record the example in this podcast in such a way that it would upset the sleeping Ollie, I fear I wasn’t so aware of his feelings when I edited it later. Sad to say that unfit humanoid that I am, I thought he was downstairs sleeping with the cat in front of the woodstove when he’d actually come upstairs to the office and crept into the dog cave for a snooze. The first I became aware of his presence was shortly after I mentioned his name the first time in the recording
Read more →Studies of the canine genome remind me of the concept of unintended consequences or in more philosophical terms, the old saying that if we tug on a corner, the whole universe moves. For sure when I read about what the canine genome tells us about diseases in ourselves, I couldn’t help but look at my thankfully healthy sleeping dogs and whisper, “Thank you.”
Read more →This is one of those podcasts that I think of as belonging to my “Can of Worm” Series. I so categorized it because the more I thought about this particular subject, the more I realized that as usual this wasn’t just about science. In addition to science, it was about ethics and also about how we feel about ourselves as individuals and what makes us and all animals unique. Even more confounding, our identities probably consist of a collection of personal wow factors that may be another’s ho-hum or even ick factors. As a result, how much ick each
Read more →I edited this podcast this podcast the day after the 2012 Super Bowl and noticed yet another negative effect of a simplistic winner-loser system. The Boston team lost so there were people in the area who were very upset this morning, probably for three reasons: they felt like losers, they probably didn’t get much sleep, and they probably ate and drank too much stuff that they probably normally wouldn’t normally eat and drink. According to medical studies, some of them even will succumb to cardiovascular problems or urinary tract infections thanks to the game. But from what I observed
Read more →In keeping with the theme of this podcast, I’d like to add that one of the reasons that our dogs and cats may be attracted to our expensive leather shoes, purses, jackets or briefcases isn’t because they know how much we value those items and want to punish us for not paying enough attention to them. It’s because leather is especially good at retaining scent.
Read more →Young human and nonhuman animals possess less experience and, as a result, possess less data in their subconscious data bases. Or nonhuman animals do if you believe they have a subconscious mind which means believing that they also posses conscious one. Some people do, some don’t. But regardless which side of this philosophical debate we come down on, most of us do accept that youngsters of any species posses a view of reality that’s more limited than those with more experience. This explains why I’m way more leery of the teenagers who barrel down my road while using various
Read more →You can see what I consider a likely example of a laughing dog here and read an article about the increased scientific interest in ticklish animals here. As always when it comes to the subject of animal emotion, some of us are more open to the idea than others. Naturally I felt obligated see if any of my animals were ticklish. Just for scientific reasons, of course. 🙂
Read more →Dognapping baboons? If you don’t believe me, check out this video clip. Aside from being fascinating, this is the kind of clip that makes me glad I’m an independent scholar in the realm of the human-animal bond. That way I have access to academics like bond scholar Hal Herzog who pointed me to his blog about this interspecies incident. (Read Hal Herzog’s blog for the inside scoop on this event.) But events such as these also make me relish my status as an independent scholar because it gives me the freedom to think the unthinkable, the weird or possibly
Read more →When you listen to this podcast, you’ll notice that there’s no mention of Bamboo the cat’s behavior during these intervals. This is because from the first instant that he made the connection between the woodstove, and warmth, and my clawably comfortable yoga mats, he decided that no interactive toy could compel him to budge from that location. I suspect this occurred because his idea of a good interactive toy is a rodent who dares venture into the basement through the dry stone foundation. Compared to that, even the most creative man-made toy lacks pizazz. Because of
Read more →Even though I recognize the need for rules in order for a society to function (regardless of species) I also recognize that, like all behavior their meaning depends on their context. In spite of what we may like to believe, nothing is written in stone. This doesn’t mean that I’m one of those people who believes that rules were meant to be broken simply because they’re rules. Hardly. But I do believe that when new information makes it clear that rules that once held no longer do, then it’s time to let them go. This podcast was triggered by
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