Problems, problems. Every day a new problem. Take these dark mornings. My PCG gets up early, gives me my piece of carrot and has a cup of tea. M, my secondary care giver thinks it's still night time and doesn't move. Now this could affect my breakfast so I need to work out a way of getting him downstairs and slotted in position as crunchie provider number two in case my number one decides to have an early bath and forget my breakfast. It has been known but I don't hold grudges.For a vertically challenged rabbit like me there are several moves. First the door to the hallway needs to be opened. Sit and stare at it. Then I take a long calculated look at the first step of the staircase. Will I be able to jump that high without bumping my head on the next step up? Which foot do I put first? I can never remember. Geronimo! Staircase secured! Next there's the mad scamper to the top followed by whether to turn right or left. Found him! There he lies, thirteen stone of lumpy human male under a rose covered eiderdown. I give a few tugs at his overhanging bedsheet with my teeth. Nothing. So Harve-the-mountaineering-hero, saviour of his crunchies, THUMPS!!! From the depths of the duvet he mumbles those reassuring words. "OK, you win, Harve." Eureka.
This would be called problem solving by humans, using known information to reach a conclusion. And they would claim it as intelligence and their perogative. My brainwork they refer to as instinct or conditioning. What arrogant nonsense. How can it be conditioning when I do a thing for the first time. Nope, I decide on a plan, work out how to do it then put it into action. On one hand there is nature, things I would do in the wild when survival comes first, then at home there's nurture where food comes first. Why would I want to know how to get a human out of bed if I lived in the wild? Have you ever spotted a human dozing by a rabbit hole with a packet of crunchies in his hand? Of course you haven't. No, I work out every problem as it comes up. All by myself.I've never doubted your genius, Harve. You're a very independant young man with very definite ideas.
Thanks for the early morning call. No need to repeat it. M.
1 comment:
I can't thump but I can wake up humans. I have never tried tugging at the bedclothes either but it seems a good idea to me. I will deal with this in a future blog.
Also... why on earth do humans think we can't solve problems. They are a strange species. They vary from believing that animals are just humans in furry coats (very insulting to us) to believing that we can't think at all. For those rare unprejudiced humans who wish to pursue this I recommend Affective Neuroscience by Panksepp. Celia is reading this -- very slowly. She gets through about a chapter every two months.
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