Questions about Dogs

I'm sitting on the brown leather couch in our living room. My yellow Labrador, Buster, was just rewarded with a Milkbone biscuit after getting it out of his favorite toy that we call Bobo (which is in the picture). Buster knows the toy by name, too. 
He gets up. His nails click on the cherry hardwood floor as he moseys around the house.  He just headed down the hall to visit my parents in the office.
I sometimes wonder what occupies a dog's brain while he/she relaxes during the day. Buster just laid/lied (whatever the correct tense is) down in front of the black Laz-E-Boy recliner right as I typed the previous sentence. Even though his eyes aren't facing me, I can tell he hasn't fallen asleep yet. He never sleeps on both shoulders, always on one side. As he stares at the brick fireplace, what is he thinking about?

• His next meal?
• Does he daydream? Maybe about things that he's never done but he's seen other dogs do. Like chasing rabbits or hunting.
• Does he think about other dogs in our neighborhood? There's a female black Labrador that lives at the beginning of our street. He really enjoys seeing her when my dad and I take him for walks. Does he think about her? Is it possible for him to miss her?
• Is he anticipating the next time I get up and take him outside?
• I also wonder if he thinks in pictures or his dog language. Does a "conscience" speak to him, or do only images flash in his brain?
• Does he think about anything?

I'll be waiting for the day that these questions can be answered. If only Buster could tell me himself. Now, he sits up, and is looking right into my eyes. He starts whining at me. Does he know that I'm writing about him?

The Lorax = Wall-E

It’s Father’s Day. So to celebrate, my parents, grandma and I grilled out on our deck surrounded by shaggy hickory trees and overwhelming humidity. We went to see The Lorax in 3D later in the afternoon. While sitting in the theater and enjoying scenes with singing fishes that could walk on land and fuzzy bears gobbling up marshmallows, something festered in the back of my mind. Where had I seen this before?...Conflict over plants… The same ideas had been presented to me before. Then it finally came to me. 

Wall-E.

When I saw Pixar’s Wall-E in 2008, I began to feel guilty about most of my actions. Everything I eat, buy, and throw away affects someone or something else in the world. This movie introduced me to the negative effects; the effects that I and many others choose to ignore.

Today, I revisited that guilt, but with a side of a “beating a dead horse”. The Lorax and Wall-E are just too similar.

Highly controlling governments are present in both films. Those governing bodies try to avoid rebellion of its citizens by playing “keep away” with plants. If the citizens are able to plant the plant, society will start fresh with more eco-friendly practices that should let the environment survive. If the plant is destroyed, the government's reign will continue. Both movies had this structure.

Lorax and Wall-E do contain good messages, like avoiding the overuse of natural resources. However, they also included the “extremes” to emphasize the ridiculousness of the reigning society, such as bottled air and chair-ridden blob people. It’s depressing that the “extremes” are and will become reality, like bottled water and increasing obesity rates. It’s also depressing that this has gotten worse since Dr. Seuss wrote his book in the 1970s.

Those who see the similarities between the two films should know that the book, The Lorax, was written before Wall-E was released, so please do not think Lorax copied Pixar.

I’ve always tried to do my part for the well-being of the environment. I participate in Meatless Monday, I turn off lights in room that aren’t being used, and I do other things, too. I wanted to learn something new from the green movement in The Lorax. All I got was reiteration of “plant a tree”. At least my family and I hadn’t seen singing fish before.