Chapter 5: The Dominant Life Form

Oh my. I now see that short snouts no longer have the knowledge of their surroundings that their ancestors had long ago. For instance, if you ask a short snout to identify the dominant species on Earth, they would probably name the human race. After all, people are "smart", have developed technologies and engineering methods, and as evidence that humans are in control they have smothered most of the planet with artificial or constructed "stuff".

Just for fun, a few short snouts might offer up dolphins or whales as advanced species.

But think about the form of life that is more numerous than people, physically larger, and has a longer life span. TREES. Until recent centuries, people respected and worshipped trees as forms of life that possessed spirits- animated beings that should be treated with deference. Dogs have a special reverence for trees and we show our appreciation for trees when we stop and sniff.

Trees perceive time passing at a different, slower rate than humans, so it's easy for you to miss much of what they do for the planet. There are over 400 billion trees, with a collective consciousness, and memories scattered through their networks of leaves. In the autumn, it's fun for dogs to romp in the fallen leaves to smell and read the memories of the past season the way people read newspapers.