Try an I-said, he-said conversation.
Set the scene somehow.
Della is my black standard poodle. She
has many queer habits, one of which is purring.
She has nightmares quite often, and she
only pays attention to me, so:
"Hi Della," I would say,
"It's okay."
"Yipe!"
"It's okay Della."
She wakes up.
"Purr."
"Good Della."
"Purrrrrrr."
"What a good girl."
"Purrrpurrrrrrrr!"
"So I guess this was another
'rabbit chasing Della' dream, right Della?"
"Purr."
These conversations are generally quite
one sided, yet are quite fulfilling in their way, as her "purr"s
are highly expressive, of how much she appreciates to wake up and not
have giant rabbits trying to eat her, and to have me petting her
instead. She only does this for me, no one else, and we do have a
whole conversation there, even though it only seems like one side is
participating intelligibly.
I have dog conversations all the time, but usually--no knock on Della--my dogs are considerably more articulate. Is it possible you are failing to listen adequately???
ReplyDeleteMy dogs say things like:
* Give me a treat, you asshole!
* I'm not going out in that snow, no way!
* Leave me the fuck alone!
* That's mine!
(They always punctuate with exclamation points.)
* Good time for a walk!
* WHO'S THAT ON OUR ROAD!!!!
* My dog, that smells doog, boss!
* Mmmmm, horse shit, yum yum!
And so on. What their conversation lacks in depth it makes up in pith.