While Nancy and I were out of town recently, Zoe stayed with our our neighbor Cathy who has a Morkie (Maltese and Yorkie) named Mia. When we returned, Cathy told me she'd discovered our dogs have different ways of communicating. As she puts it, Mia is a literalist and Zoe is... well... something else. When Mia wants to go out, for example, she will bark at the door. If she's hungry, she'll bark at her supper dish, and so forth. Zoe, on the other hand, will do the same thing no matter what she wants - push her nose against your hand and whine plaintively; this can mean anything from feed me to let me outside. Mia seems to be saying, "I'm having a problem with the fact my supper dish is empty;" whereas, Zoe's message is, "I want something. You're the human. You figure it out."
But wait, there's more.
Cathy claims, and this strains the credulity of even yours truly, that Zoe and Mia somehow talk to each other. One evening, again this is Cathy's account, I did not see it myself, Mia began barking at Zoe's supper dish to let Cathy know Zoe was hungry. Sure enough, when Cathy put food in it, Zoe dug in while Mia turned her attention to other matters.
What do you think of that, you skeptics? Proof positive, is what I call it. And as for those of you considering impugning my dog's intelligence for not having the sense to bark at her own supper dish, how many times have you laid around the house in general discontent, wanting something but not knowing what, whining and grumbling about life in general until someone suggested you fix yourself a snack or maybe just go outside?
