Trusty sidekicks …

… A VETERINARIAN’S PERSPECTIVE ON WRITING ANIMALS. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

… animals live in a completely different sensory environment than we do. They see things we cannot see. They hear things we cannot hear. They smell things we cannot smell. And they sense things we cannot sense. These may not always be important things, but they’re there, nonetheless. Humans arrogantly assume that the reality they perceive is the true and complete version of reality. How can this house not be empty? And this night not be silent? And this air not be odorless? But of course, all of this is just mediated through our senses and is necessarily limited, or we would become overwhelmed by the input. Evolution equipped us with what we needed, no more and no less. Different animals have had different evolutionary needs, and thus their senses are equipped differently, and their experience of the world is different, sometimes very different.