Think different

Dad said I might want to write about differences between people and doggies. This idea made me twist my head a little and stare at him, because he must be crazy. There are SO MANY differences! How could he not know?! Then I thought maybe he thinks I don't know, so I looked at him deeper because he was calling me stupid and I am not! And then I thought that Dad knows I'm not stupid, so maybe he thinks there is something that doggies notice, but people don't -- Like how doggies sniff everything, so they know where they are. But people don't, so they can miss things that are right in front of their noses.

So I spent the whole day thinking about it and I think that most of the difference that people don't know is just from one thing: Doggies live with what they find, and people change what they live with.

People are always moving things around. I see Mom and Dad bring things in, move them around, and take them away again. They move water out of the pouring things over the sinks and put it in a plastic water holder and then make it sit there. Later, they move the same water into a hand-bowl before they drink it. People change things all the time too. They bring food home and they hide it. Later, they bring it back out and mix it together until it smells and tastes different. They make it light inside when it is dark outside. They make the air inside warmer or colder than the air outside, too. They even change the way they look by putting different stuff all over themselves every day!

Doggies move themselves around instead of things. When we don't live with people, we look for water, and food, and a place to sleep when we are tired. When we do live with people we look for water, and food, and a place to sleep when we are tired -- we just don't have to look as far when we live with people.

The doggie way makes sense, because once you get what you want and need and what more is there? The people way can be good too, though, because it CAN be too warm or too cold outside. And sometimes food CAN taste even better after it is mixed and made different. (I never would have guessed you could make food taste even better! It was ALREADY food, how could it get better?!!)

But the problem with the people way is that people can forget WHY they are changing things. And then people are just changing things to change them. And if people are doing all of this changing with the stuff in front of their faces, then what they are doing with the stuff on the other side? Do they know that their inside can be already the most? Or do they think that it is only the most if it is different from how it is now?

So it is a good thing that doggies know people and people know doggies. If we watch each other, we can learn new things and think about them differently. Doggies can live with people, and stay in the best air, and get more and better food. And people can live with doggies, so they never get lost behind their noses.