Weeping over "America's Funniest Videos," of all things ... clips of animals trying to talk.

Although I don't believe dogs can use actual words to communicate the way, say, some apes can ... it still breaks my heart to think of the lengths our animal companions will go to to try to please us ... communicate with us in a way that they hope is meaningful to us. Dogs and cats aren't even BUILT to speak ... but they try so hard ... and we find their efforts "amusing."

Do we spend any time at all trying to figure out how to communicate with them in a language they can understand? Other than how to establish/enforce dominance?

Reminds me of something John Gray wrote Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus... something along the lines of how the subordinate group in a situation (racial, sexual, political, social, what-have-you) will spend a lot of time studying and learning about the dominant group ... but the dominant group, on the other hand, spends very little time if any learning anything about the subordinate group.

Having an animal companion is a humbling experience ... or it should be ...