An email from a friend in Maine:"K. I was thinking about butt sniffing in context to high mammal behavior. I haven't thought a lot about this, but occasionally I have observed this type of behavior, primarily among dogs of course. And cats. Also cows, wildebeests, not sure about whales, reptiles or amphibians, or chickens. You know how with the Humanoids there is so much complexity to the issues. As I mentioned before behaviors can be misinterpreted and reactions can have varying degrees of severity. Now with butt sniffing, you get what you see--or smell. I'm not exactly sure what all a dog sniffs out, but man oh man, s/he must get a powerful message out of a snoot full. In many situations, there is the initial nose greeting, then quickly to the butt for a more meaningful acqauintance. So it appears to me that the nose smooch is just the preliminary formality. It is the other end that really counts. I would love to know the information they get out of that. And if they enjoy it. I know there a lot of taboos involved here in translating to human terms, and I am IN NO WAY advocating a change to the saluatation system. This is merely observation and comparison. The dogs just have it all pared down to simplicity which is the part I like. Most dogs can do the meet and greet and move on happily. One exception is our dog, Muna, who skips the greeting and lunges snarling for the throat. Bitch. Maybe she takes offense to the norm. Don't blame her really. Anyway since you seem to be curious about my observations, I thought I should pass this along. We as humans have evolved way beyond the sniff test. Instead we react with disgust to any product from the lower extremity. I can be that way too. I'm just saying that dogs in particular really get off on it. So the mysteries in life continue. Later, L."
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