Some animals are so smart

Sam is trying to help me write. He’s on my lap pawing at my computer as if to say, “Let me try it.”

I confess that as a human being I occasionally underestimate Sam’s intelligence. One day we were out walking in the rain and he kept pulling me toward a row of garages at our (former) condo complex. I resisted him until I realized he wanted to walk under the garage overhang because the ground there was dry. Duh. Is there a Walking Dogs for Dummies book?

The intelligence of horses has always amazed me too. One time when I was working as a groom at a racing stable, I stood in disbelief as a stallion used his lips to unlock his stall gate so he could visit a mare down the row. His lips were more nimble than my fingers!

Now I’m wondering how smart the Easter Bunny is. With so many chocolate marshmallow eggs to deliver and so little time, will the Easter Bunny enlist a cadre of other bunnies to get the job done? Maybe the Easter Bunny has special powers like Santa Clause, but I’m worried.

I don’t get it that we humans think we’re so much smarter than other animals. My parents always warned me about discussing politics and religion, but I just can’t stay quiet on the fact that our Congressional leaders are so dumb they may fail to agree on a budget for our country before the current one expires, and I am absolutely flabbergasted that a preacher in Florida has burned the Qur’an.

All our Congressional leaders do is quibble and procrastinate and point fingers of blame at each other. When are they ever going to get it that we can’t wage war on three fronts, cut taxes and cut taxes and cut taxes and still balance the budget? Am I the only person in the United States who took Economics 101? The only way we’re going to pull out of our current economic crisis is to RAISE taxes. Yes, I said RAISE taxes. We need to pay for things we want – roads and schools and health care. We’re still buying big screen TVs, new cars, video games, sports and concert tickets and going out to dinner and movies. Why don’t we just dig into our pockets for another dollar or ten and pay our bills?

As for the preacher in Florida, there simply is no excuse for burning the holy book of Islam; bet he wouldn’t have the guts to burn the Bible or the Torah (I hope he wouldn’t). Has he not read the many passages in the Bible that talk about waging holy war and wiping out one’s enemies and has he not read Jesus’ advice to be tolerant of others? I say three bags of poop on all zealots, whether they be Christian, Muslim or whatever. We hope the Easter Bunny doesn’t deliver a chocolate marshmallow egg to that preacher’s house; he’s such a rotten egg.