A Boy and his Dog

 

Tony could see it in his eyes.  There was an understanding, he somehow knew.  He absolutely knew.   Of course, he didn’t have the various facial expressions and certainly not the ability to talk, but he knew things.  Tony believed his dog’s ability to sense things was elevated far above anything we refer to as mental telepathy.  

Tony vaguely remembered the story of Babble.   Mankind was going to build this massive tower, so high that it could reach up to God.  God, of course, didn’t want this to happen, so what he did was to give everyone a different language.  Some spoke Greek, some Scottish, others Italian and so on.  Once God had done that, Mankind could no longer coordinate his efforts.  They couldn’t communicate their intentions, develop plans or simply work together.  Trust dissolved and construction on the giant tower came to a halt.

Tony believed things were different in the animal kingdom.  With the exception of some species, animals understand what is going on around them.  They know all about you the moment you walk up to them.  They know what scares you and if you can be trusted.  They can see an evil heart from quite a distance.  They have a strong sense of play - if play can be described as a sense.  Even crows have a sense of humor and often play tricks on each other.

The problem Tony had was nobody believed him whenever he tried to explain to them that his dog Gregorio could understand him completely.  It was just something that was going to have to be their little secret.  And it wasn’t so much the verbal cues that were understood but rather that Gregorio could anticipate Tony.  He somehow knew ahead of time what they were going to do or what Tony wanted, and it didn’t take Tony long to pick up on that. 

There was, however, great frustration within Tony.  He hated the language barrier between Man and animals.  He wished he were smart enough to figure a way around it.  If only there was something, some part of evolution that could be enhanced.  Maybe gene manipulation.  He had heard of the work being done in gene splicing…  why not do it with this?   Then again, he thought, maybe that is a lock that should never be picked, a tower that shouldn’t be built.

 His cat, on the other hand, ignored him completely.