Reply #146: I have long maintained -- and only half in jest -- that...

[newswolf56]

...the most intelligent life-form on the planet is the canine, especially the wolf: that maybe primates were taught tool-use by watching wolves (or dogs) play with sticks rather than vice-versa as is often supposed. Which is actually significant to this discussion -- for if the resurrection of the goddess means we again begin studying nature for clues as to proper behavior, the adaptivity and cooperation of canine packs is maybe the best example we have -- something many of our aboriginal forebears celebrated by the honors they paid dog and wolf: in more than a few tribes, exalted totems. Dogs have rescued the individual lives of many of us -- and according to Plains myths, wolves too have done likewise, not to mention all the lives saved by the great healer Medicine Wolf -- and maybe in the burgeoning popularity of dogs in America today there is testimony that we are at last re-learning how to Pay Attention. I hope: though I can picture a world without humans, I cannot picture one without canines.