Marty’s photos of the day #4395-4396: I tend to frown at stick-up-their-ass people who refuse to give animals the credit they deserve for both emotions and intelligence. And when I read articles about animals using tools, dogs are never included. One such article claimed, “In some cases, the objects are merely toys—but they become tools when used to manipulate another object or creature for a specific purpose.”
Today’s photos show Nellie using tools. In the first one, she’s taken the biggest stick she can lift in the forest to entice me to play with her. Yes, the stick was her tool to create play.
The second photo is Nellie after she somehow carried the huge stick through the forest, all the way home. She did it because doing so made me laugh, and the stick was her tool to create that laughter.
Compare that to Donald Trump, whose only known impromptu use of a tool was tossing a ketchup-covered plate against a White House wall as a way to alert his handlers that he needed someone to change his diaper and help him blow his nose.