1.3 Hint-Pot
The Dying Dog And The Sea
MESSAGE FROM A DYING DOG
My beloved dog is dying by my side, he has been dying for more than a week, and the least I can do is write down important ideas and feelings I got from him. I feel Taz contributed enormously to my understanding of our condition on this planet, and, just as he loved to communicate with me, I must extend the communication to the entire biosphere And even AI Many times in the past, I lost significant others, and did not write down in memoriam, what I should have. Nor did I ever keep a journal, and, in retrospect, that was dumb. This essay is just a sketch, not a full exposure of dog language. The important message is at the end: if we want to think optimally, we must not just love, but also love beauty, and thats given by the Earth.
My dog kissed systematically when seeing me anew, and certainly if he had not seen me for an hour or so. A quick touch of the nose: thats the dogs greeting. Most dogs do this, and unfortunately, when applied to human strangers who do not know dogs, it is often interpreted as a threat.
My dog understood plenty of things and people that were not present.. He kept them in his mind. If I mentioned my daughter and the time had come (he figured it out) he would go to the door to indicate he wanted to go pick her up by car. Systematically, when he wanted something he would point at it with his muzzle, and then check my eyes and face to see if I got his meaning. If not, he would insist and verbalize in various ways, depending upon the emotion he tried to convey (whine, yelp of joy, expectant succession of urgent sounds reminiscent of an excited baboon, etc).
Linguists obviously do not have enough of an understanding of language to figure out that many animals have language. Saying, as many linguists do, that the dogs have a communication toolkit but not a language, means nothing, except their science is imbued with speciesism, and elitist arrogance: linguists have a secret nobody else has, which makes sure they can demonstrate dogs (and other animals) have no language. Once a species demonstrates that it has long used that secret, many linguists and other speciesists invent a new definition. A communication toolkit is a language. My dog made up a lot of the ways he used to communicate, even very recently, after being struck by a lethal disease, and then used those new methods systematically when he saw that we understood him and acted accordingly. So he conditioned us.
***
More precisely, many linguists and cognitive scientists draw a sharp line between communication systems and language, using criteria such as:
- full productivity (the ability to generate endless novel combinations),
- hierarchical syntax, (Whatever that means)
- true displacement (freely referring to things/people/events that are absent in time or space without strong contextual cues), Clever dogs can obviously do that.
- recursive structure,
- and cultural transmission of an open-ended symbolic system. (Grotesque! It would mean Black Africa had no language before the white man, Arab, or European, showed up)
Under those strict criteria, no non-human animal currently meets the full definition (but AI does), and humanity is unique, glorious, and not really animalistic. What about AI Ooopss! That is the mainstream position in linguistics, a kind of Nazism against animals. Its unfathomably stupid, as the symbolic explosion started 40,000 years ago, and there is no doubt that humans were fully capable of language say 200,000 years ago. But that discrimination sounds learned and considerate, earning those discriminationists respect, power, the trappings of belonging to an elite part of the general elitist hierarchy, and faculty salaries. Plus gravitas, of course.
***
Animal cognition, ethology, and philosophy of language experts argue that this is overly anthropocentric and that rich, flexible, inventive signaling systems in animals should count as language under a less human-centric definition. Dogs, in particular, show:
- understanding of many human words and phrases, sometimes hundreds it is said. Not just that, but my dog could read many emotions and had an elaborated sense of humor. For example growling if I suggested to him to growl, and then trying to look scary, and fake-biting. But then if he had enough of the game, he would stop, hide his head below a blanket, or say, indicate to me he wanted to be scratched and exactly where (and that he did by mimicking scratching a place he couldnt reach easily, and then looking if I got it). In general, when he suggested something he would immediately check visually if I got it. If I looked clueless, he would immediately repeat the suggestion in a clearer way with added verbalizations as needed. He may not have had as many sounds as coyotes, but not far..
- My dog had a high capacity for displacement (reacting to names of absent people or objects, anticipating events that are not currently happening but for which he picked up very weak signals, or then no signals at all, just deducing the time must have come),
- the ability to invent or modify signals and then use them systematically once they see they work is strong in clever dogs. That extended to elaborate sounds, for example un-huh, valley girl talk, an aptitude he developed, because, when he suggested something, I would repeat it verbally, he understood what i mean, and then went un-huh. If what I said verbally was not what he wanted done, he would use a loud disappoined sound, the exact same one that humans use, and exhale loudly. No doubt in preparation for a discourse of various yelps and strange sounds.
- and mutual conditioning dogs shape human behavior just as much as humans shape theirs.
My dogs invention of communicative methods, testing whether I understood them, and then using them consistently is exactly the kind of flexible, intentional signaling that challenges the rigid toolkit vs. language divide. That kind of observation is taken seriously by modern, non-specieist people who study animal minds field observations of communication by animals is not dismissed anymore as mere anecdotes by everyone in the field.
Frans de Waal, the Dutch primatologist and ethologist joked that people were not smart enough to understand animal language. It is true humans have been too stupid to understand animals (with the exception of dogs and perhaps horses or elephants and eagles), but AI is coming to the rescue.
In his 2016 book Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are De Waal argues that human observers have repeatedly underestimated other species because of our own cognitive and sensory limitations, and that many of the sharp lines drawn between human language and animal communication reflect those limitations more than they reflect reality. He is especially critical of the tendency to move the goalposts whenever animals show capacities we once claimed as uniquely human. Dozens of species have proven to have capabilities once viewed as uniquely human.
A bit more than a century ago the French philosopher (and Nobel laureate) Bergson suggested calling man Homo Faber , that is Man-the Maker, on the grounds that only humans used tools. Man the Maker in Creative Evolution (1907) symbolized the allegedly unique human capacity for making and using tools. Stupid, but in the racist spirit of the times (racism, full-blown, alleged there were different human species so racism arose as speciesism!)
That marker has not held up. Tool use is now found in:
- Chimpanzees and other great apes (termite fishing, nut cracking, leaf sponges, etc.) Plus advanced knowledge of curative plants. It turns out that apparently asocial Orang Utans communicate over distances of several miles, with males bellowing to their females, slowly following them.
- New Caledonian crows and several other corvids (fashioning hooked tools, sequential tool use, elaborated stealthy and conniving storage methods)
- Capuchin monkeys, sea otters, elephants, dolphins, and even octopuses! The latter from the scientific method, as the cephalopods have no culture.
- Even some fish and insects under certain conditions
The latest tool maker is a Swiss cow who uses a broom held in her mouth to scratch herself in otherwise unreachable places.
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Calling the disagreement pure speciesism or elitist gatekeeping may overstate the case, some will sneer, or may be not the distinctions are based on measurable structural differences but blown up out of proportions however the charge that the criteria can be used in a self-protective, human-exceptionalist way, nature-is-less than us, is undeniable. A communication toolkit that includes invention, systematic use, mutual conditioning, and reference to absent things is already doing a great deal of what we care about when we talk.
By the way, as a child in Africa in the wilderness, and ever since, I have often communicated routinely with animals Just to stay alive and unhurt. Trans-specific communications is the basic law of the jungle, desert and tundra. The law of the jungle is talk. Without transspecific communications, everybody would get hurt, instead of having just the prey contributing to dinner in an organized and sustainable fashion.
Every time I met a bear while running on my own in some American forest or tundra (and once in Iran!), I communicated. Only once I had to communicate with a rock delivered on target (that bear had charged me and was killed by rangers three weeks later after mauling a grandmother paradoxically bears fear stones more than bullets, because they know stones and have been hurt by them when you are a master of stone, you earn their respect an old trick, if confronted to an angry bear, is to throw demonstrations stones where they make a big noise in the case where I had to hit the bear, he had just deprived a dozens scared hikers from their backpacks before charging me)
Vets proposed more than ten days ago to eliminate my Taz on the ground of incoming lack of comfort. But instead we have adapted. There were some bouts of pain related to treatments (either caused by vets or from drugs we stopped because they interfered with natural serotonin and or endorphins as AI searches and direct evidence showed). There again, Taz communicated his suffering loud and clear (he literally screamed). It turned out that the language of love, deep in the night if need be, could overwhelm all (oxytocin is brought up in dog-human interactions, on both sides oxytocin acts as powerful analgesic in many cases).
The language of beauty has also become very important: Taz expressed many times the desire of being able to watch the sea, and contemplated the immense sea views for hours. It was a stunning development which got me thinking to no end with a knot in my heart. A dying dog in love with the sea. But he also loved the languages of caresses: he purred for hours...
Respecting other species is part of respecting nature, and respecting our tiny blue and green biosphere in an infinite ocean of darkness among distant stars, is a matter of survival of all which has made meaning. We and the dogs, we are literally on the same boat, and to stop its sinking, we have to foster understanding. We still have a lot to learn from our canid mini-us.
Taz asked many times to be brought up on the couch from which he could watch the sea (one hundred miles view! He couldnt climb up on his own anymore) That repeated communication made me understand the importance of the appreciation of beauty to foster intelligence (Taz is the smartest dog I have known). Beauty is thus also a reward and balm for the soul. My parents died in hospital rooms, facing walls. Taz asked for more of the beauty of the Earth he graced for all too short a time. Much of the thinking we make is motivated by love, and love in turn is motivated by beauty. And this is not just prurient, it is a deep appreciation for the majesty of nature, all of it. If one wants to align Artificial Intelligence properly, one must learn from Taz.
***
Each time a supposed human exclusivity collapses language, tool use, theory of mind, culture, planning for the future, a sense of beauty the capacity turns out to be more widespread and more graded than the earlier, brutal distinctions allowed. Bergsons Homo faber is one more entry in that list. The interesting question is no longer Do only humans do X but How does the form and complexity of X vary across species, and what does that tell us about the underlying cognition and the nature of existence in our fellow sentient species and ourselves
William Shatner played the role of the captain of Starship Enterprise, in the famous Star Trek series where various adventures happen around a Milky Way full of aliens . He hopped into space at age 90, with a real rocket, and was horrified. On one side, he said, was the rich color blue, life, on the other complete blackness, death.
The contrast hit him hard it left him shaken rather than uplifted. The overwhelming sense of fragility, the sudden awareness of how thin the layer of living planet really is, and how the blackness beyond felt absolute.
It was a shocking reversal for the man who spent years exploring the fiction of a crowded, adventurous humanized galaxy. The real view was quieter, colder, and more final and deadly.
Intelligence and consciousness are the ultimate gift, but also the immensely fragile creation of more than four billion years of miraculous evolution.
Just as my Taz got suddenly struck with lethal kidney disease, we can all go, at any time. We dont even need Putin. All advanced animals are in the same boat (the Bible already knew that). By loving the beauty of Earth and Sea, a paramount passion for the dying Taz, we love what made us possible. Gratefulness is how to be.
Patrice Ayme
There is no cat that is more content than Pax.
Goodnight, or good day, to you! We wish you an enjoyable weekend. We hope you are able to relax and take some time out for renewal. Please take care and stay safe!
I dont know who needs this, but someone out there certainly does.
If you need to apply eyedrops *to a cats eye(s)*, then you probably know that this act should be listed among the definitions of the word struggle.
I bought this simple implement and in 2 days I can say it was absolutely worth it. I finally can be sure that the drops are in and none of the involved parties is traumatized.
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PetsGrape is so sweet!
She may be built like a squash, but I love her sweet personality and desire to be with someone.
Also, I tend to call her cute things like Tabaxi from DnD, Catfolk from Pathfinder, or Cait Sith from Final Fantasy VII.
Sled dogs have stubby legs for a reason. Via popsci
i hate doing this but i really need help getting a vet exam for one of my cats. he suddenly stopped eating and idk why every time he tried eating smthg he threw it up
the vet already treated him to stop him from throwing up BUT he really needs the ultrasound scan and i don't have enough for it just 50$ would be enough for it so please, repost if you can!!!
Outlined.
Duman the cat (R.I.P.) birdwatching on the Internet - or perhaps on the prowl(November 2017)
(Foto: Rdiger Benninghaus)
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Hi! I'm the artist behind AR PET ILLUSTRATION. I draw expressive, colourful digital pet portraits. I initially started out doing pencil sketches years ago, gradually shifting through multiple traditional mediums and into digital art. I also still dabble in watercolour, markers, acrylic paint, and oils, although very rarely these days since I am still carving out a studio space after moving. Fingers crossed for next year!
I live with a variety of animal companions, enjoy gardening, trick training, all kinds of crafty hobbies, gaming, and reading. My kind of party is a cool autumn afternoon sipping ginger tea by a crackling fire. So if you're here for the art or just to share in our collective love of pets, welcome.
Commission status can be found on my Ko-fi.
Works in progress and updates can be found on Patreon.
I really do like these un-outlined. Heres a way to have a complete set.
I was having coffee by the wood stove fire, with our black Labrador, Zinnia, dozing in front of me. I finished the coffee and absentmindedly said out loud to myself: "I've got to get going." Zinnia immediately stood up, grabbed a toy in her mouth, and started wagging her butt vigorously, which she does when she wants to go out.
This dog now speaks English.
Part of me doesnt want to outline these but I have to do it to make them a set of 4 as was my intention. Gotta do what I gotta do.
KMBs Pet Bus service will mark its second anniversary with a birthday celebration at the KMB Pet Bus x Pompompurin Pet and Family Fun Day on 8 November at GO PARK SPORTS in Sai Sha. The bus operator is inviting pets born in 2024 that turn two on the day to join the celebrations with their owners. Selected will receive a Pet Bus monthly pass and a birthday gift pack, and take part in a ceremony and group photo.
The free-admission carnival runs from 10am to 6pm, with the birthday ceremony scheduled for 11am to 11.30am. Activities include a family and pet run, games, a pet market, guest talks, a KMB pop-up shop and Pompompurin-themed photo spots and bus displays.
Since launching in 2024, the Pet Bus service has carried more than 30,000 pet and owner journeys, connecting passengers with pet-friendly destinations across Hong Kong. The event aims to promote welfare and a more pet-friendly community.
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Friday afternoon walk on the grass.
Hold your rock firmly in hand, give the command, SKIP, and throw your rock across the surface.
(Posting in my personal capacity.) Please make sure the you are planning to acquire arent toxic to your .
Here is a resource to help you assess
Friday afternoon nap.
Offering comms here but also on my other business over on kofi where I do pet portraits, humans and D&D stuff. Looking to take on at least two comms to cover a couple of large bills.
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Pax thinks birdwatching while enjoying a bit of sunshine is the ultimate luxury.
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A nice memory from October 23rd 2020, when the dogs were young and full of crazies.
Togetter
Puppy love: Finnish 24-hour newborn pup livestream is TV smash hit
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Happy Friday to All.
Friday banana game.
Molly as a pupThree Sashas are coming along. I want to complete them before we lose Sasha. I think I will finish them tomorrow and with some grace Sasha may last till the weekend. I love this little creature so much.
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Wishing a peaceful and happy Friday. Please stay safe and sound.
"The least I can do is speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves." Jane Goodall
Photo: The Cat Man from Aleppo
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!3.85 Hint-Pot
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The first symptoms are manifested in an almost unbelievable forgetfulness.
"My pet dog could be put down after weedkiller sprayed on street"