“That’s horrible,” Gwen exclaimed. “We can’t let them do that to Ginger.”
“But if they rightfully own her, how can we stop them from taking her back?” Gray asked.
I stared at Ginger and shook my head. “Something is not adding up. He obviously tracked her here, so somehow, she must be emitting some kind of signal. But like I said earlier, if it’s a GPS signal, she’d have some kind of collar or vest with a battery pack. There must be a way to connect to a satellite. Plus, how did they know that we were in this room and were all ladies? Something is very off.”
Gray nodded. “Really off, and I’m not just talking about the science. Why not wait until someone turned her over to a shelter, read the chip, and called them? They could have picked her up and no one would be the wiser. But this guy was super anxious to capture this dog. Tonight? Why?”
I put the lipstick down on the couch next to the plastic apple and the blanket. “Okay, let’s start at the beginning. First, let’s make the somewhat risky assumption that Ginger is trying to communicate with us by dragging these items to us. She gave us this collection of items that obviously mean something to her. So, let’s play along. What do these things have in common?”
As I said that, Ginger came and sat on my feet, looking at me expectantly, her tail wagging. It was almost as if she was pleading for us to figure it out.
“They’re…comfort items?” Gwen suggested. “Lipstick, a crispy apple, and a blanket. Maybe those are things that feel safe to her.”
That was too much of stretch to me. “The blanket and the apple, maybe. But how does the lipstick play into it?”
Gwen lifted her hands. “She likes kisses?”
I glanced at the dog, but she just kept her steady gaze on me. We stared at the items, willing them to reveal their secret connection.
“Well, the apple is the only food,” Gray surmised. “Unless she thinks she can eat lipstick. Maybe she chews on the blanket? Perhaps chewing or eating is the connection.”
“Other than carrying them in her mouth over to us, she didn’t chew on any of it,” Basia pointed out. “Maybe these are all things you find in a home, so she wants us to take her home?”
“These items feel too specific to be random things you’d find in a home,” I said.
Gwen rubbed her forehead. “Maybe we just have to accept that they are random items. Perhaps she’s been traumatized by all the recent activity and has lost it mentally.”
We looked expectantly at Ginger. She didn’t look like she’d lost it, but I didn’t really know much about dogs, so that was a purely subjective assessment.
I blew out a breath, feeling like we were going nowhere and somehow it was my fault.
“I can’t be sure, but I feel like there has to be some connection between these things,” I mused. “Why these particular items? Especially the lipstick. I mean, she had to dig it out of Basia’s bag to get it. And why the apple instead of the pear? It just doesn’t feel random to me.”
Gwen leaned forward. “Maybe the order that she brought the items to us is important. Lipstick, plastic apple, blanket.”
Ginger started wagging her tail harder and Basia sat up straighter. “I think Gray is right,” she said. “Ginger is trying to communicate, and I think she’s telling us we’re on the right track.”
“While this is kind of novel, you guys do know this is nuts,” Gray said. “Ginger is a dog. She can’t possibly know what we’re talking about. And before you come for me, I know some animals can communicate, like gorillas. They can use sign language, but only because they were taught specific words, can store the signs in their memory and use their hands to reciprocate. Dogs don’t have hands or reciprocal language capability.”
“As far as we know,” I said.
“Lexi is right. There’s a lot we don’t know about animal communication,” Basia said, pacing in front of the gas fireplace. “As a linguist, I can confirm that not only do dogs communicate with each other, but they can also communicate with their owners reciprocally. Not in the same ways as a gorilla does, perhaps. For example, a human gives an order to the dog and the dog obeys, showing they understood. Sit. Jump. Stay. Come, and so on. The harder part is how they talk with us. It’s much more simplistic. They bark to go out, they bark to warn, and they bark to show excitement. They lick and stay close to show affection and can learn to protect on command. Barking is the key method of communication, but not the only one. Dogs primarily read each other’s body language, but that’s a rudimentary form of communication. We’re assigning Ginger an unprecedented level of intelligence. We need to be careful.”
I considered her words. “While I agree with what both you and Gray said, I still think that we accept the benefit of the doubt and see what we can theorize here. Ginger seems to be communicating with us, or at least trying to. Maybe we just have to figure out what she wants to say and take it from there.”
Basia stopped pacing and sat next to Gray, her chin in her hand, staring at Ginger. “Are you trying to talk to us, Ginger?” she asked.
Ginger looked at Basia and thumped her tail again.
“Okay, I’ll give you that,” Gray said. “She does look like she’s trying to tell us something.”
“You know, I follow this woman on Instagram whose says her dog talks with her by pushing a series of buttons on the floor, each of which contains a word,” Basia said. “She teaches the words to the dog and reuses them over and over, much like teaching sign language to a gorilla. But instead of using sign language, the dog uses its paw to push a button. A lot of people online discount her by saying the dog accidentally pushes the buttons, so it doesn’t mean anything, but I’m not so sure of that. I’ve seen that dog walk around the board several times and deliberately push specific buttons in a certain order that form a coherent thought. It’s somewhat astonishing.”
“Dogs are far more intelligent than we give them credit for,” I murmured and Ginger rewarded me by nudging my hand. I looked directly at her, pushing aside any doubt for the moment. “Okay, Ginger, if you’re trying to talk to us, you’re going to have to help us understand what you want to say regarding these items. We’ll start with the assumption that you understand the words yes and no. We’ll ask you a question. If the answer is yes, sit down. If the answer is no, bark once. Let’s practice.”
“Did you like that man that came to the door?” I pointed at the door.
Ginger barked once.
