There was an interesting occurrence that happened between my cat and a beetle. Looking back on it now I obviously recognize it to be a complicated system of communication, but at the time I simply found it amusing and somewhat odd. Standing out in the sunshine and the grass, I watched my cat as it watched a small black beetle crawling on a dead leaf. My cat had circled the beetle several times, prowling, clearly getting ready to pounce on the beetle, when she stopped short and the beetle seemed to look directly at her. At this, my cat made what I can only call "eye contact" with the beetle, and in several quick flits moved her eyes this way and that, seeming to glance around the yard checking her surroundings. Her eyes moved right over me, standing off a few feet away, but there was no recognition in them. Her eyes settled back on the beetle. Now, there is no way of telling exactly what my cat had said to it, as I could not understand this eye speak that she exhibited, and can only run off of my faulty memory, but I believe it went something like this.
"Did you hear Frank's speech the other day? Nonsense I say! Free health care, he must be out of his mind, where on earth could our society gather the amount of wealth for that sort of thing? Absurd, I tell you."
And then my cat ate the beetle. I must tell you though that before the beetle was eating, it moved, almost imperceptibly forwards and backwards as if nodding its agreement to what the cat had just said.
I wonder now about the mystery of man's own consciousness. How we humans have spent millennia so enthralled with our existence, as if it is some deep mystery with an answer worth pondering. The common man seems to take himself so seriously, without giving even a second thought to the creatures outside of his own head, especially the non human ones. And in the end it seems like they were the clever ones all along, all of our collective brain power and reasoning and we still managed to look everywhere but down at our own feet for answers nature herself was willing to give to us.
But my words are cavernous and hollow for the most part. Beetles and cats are passionately obsessed with politics.
I began now to focus my attention on my animals for hours at a time each day. They did not speak much, just as two old friends can be around each other for days on end without having so much as a complete dialogue and still be content with each other. But as I slowly learned their language it became clear to me when they were speaking and what they were saying to each other.
I understood words that I thought of as greetings and thanks first. Animals seem to be quite polite. When I would wake up in the morning, my cat would usually be awake already watching me, and say something like "Good morning." I wonder how many times I awoke with my cat like that and didn't realize what she was saying. Or perhaps I did, in some unconscious way, as I would almost always reach out to pet her and speak to her as if she understood me.
My dog, however, is usually woken up by me. Strangely enough, despite her charismatic and excited attitude at seeing me, she would usually say hello as well, and then tell me about her dreams.
A DOGS DREAM
I rose my weary head to the vast plain. My head ached and my eyes felt full and thick, keeping open lids took great effort, and yet I know I had just slept deeply. The sun cast its heat down upon the surface of that white sandy desert and yet when I raised my eyes upon it it was cold, almost lucid. I could feel its presence above me, and could feel an awareness awake in the bottom of my mind, finally released, an awareness of this vast ball of energy that had been watching me since my inception. I knew deep down in my gut that this was no place for a dog.
And so I began to uncurl my arms and my legs and walk, not knowing what I was walking towards but knowing where it lay. I had a great thirst but did not get thirstier, and so I knew I would not die, but perhaps I already had died. The sand shifted slightly and whispered to me ancient wisdom that no living being had been witness to, things only an undying, unwavering particle of matter could have understood after spending an eternity tumbling among so many more like it. It clung to me, the sand, and was unlike anything i had before seen. Intuitively I understood that I was the first to step here for a long time, and I wondered if another being had ever been in this place, or if I were the first.
After hours, or perhaps days, for the sun hung quivering and cold in the sky off to my left without moving, i felt my presence slowly lightening, fading, until finally I opened my eyes to see you, my dear love, and I understood that I had reached my destination.
This left me disturbed and a bit insecure, as my dream had been about getting in a fight with my neighbor because they were drawing maps in the sky.
I croaked out her name with a serious question mark sitting at the end of it, unsure of what she would do. She wagged her tail, farted, looked surprised, got off the bed and left my room.
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