Banner and I had a little conversation last week. It can be surprisingly enlightening to exchange ideas with a Newf. They can be good listeners, and they can be just as surprised by what we understand of those exchanges.
Ordinarily, they seem to telepath thoughts to us that we are just supposed to understand without verbal dialog. That probably works better between Newfs than it does between human and Newf. I resort to asking questions until there is a recognizable response, so I have to ask the right question in order to understand a request. Lately, she has had to take a medication and frequently asks to go outside. She has modified this request. Before, she would walk up and look at me, anticipating my ability to receive her thoughts, to which I would ask, sometimes getting it right with the first question, and she would affirm. Then we would go outside. Her dog door has been closed due to the heat, so she depends on me to open the round handle. (round since she can open lever handles) There is also the long-traditional wake-you-and-everything-else-up middle-of-the-night notifications. But now when she wants to go outside, she approaches and turns her head a little sideways and moves her eyeballs to point in the general direction of the door. Perhaps the additional need in expediency led her to communicate in a way that wouldn’t lead to a question and answer session.
Another new thing is that she has discovered Graham crackers as catch treats. Original Graham crackers are no longer available, at least in our area, and the cinnamon ones cause stomach irritation, but the generic honey-flavored ones have been working well. We still miss the pumpkin cookies that were discontinued, and I’m having a hard time keeping up with making ginger snaps. So when we go to bed, she gets sections of Graham crackers as catch treats. If I forget, she looks at me with a clear expression that indicates she is worried that I am forgetting something. The second or third time she did that, I looked at her and said, “Oh! We need some Graham crackers, don’t we?” [just so she would have affirmation that I “got it”, and without going through iterations of Q&A]
The look she gave me was priceless! Clearly she was astonished that after 10+ years, I was beginning to understand Newf telepathy! Unfortunately, she may be disappointed next time, as I get lucky once in a while, just as I do with Wordle, but I still don’t have the kind of telepathy that seems clearly transmitted among Newfs.
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