If I could talk to the animals

If I could talk to the animals, what would I say?  If I could talk dog or horse or snake, what would I talk about?

Even if I could bark or whinny or hiss, would we have anything in common?  Would they understand my train of thought?  Would we have enough joint experiences to hold down a conversation?

How would an animal with hooves make sense of what I am saying with my hands?  How would my lack of a tail come across to one for whom it is so integral in their lives?  

If I could talk to the animals, what would I say? 

What would I say to a snake that can wait for weeks between meals when I’m thinking about lunch whilst eating breakfast?  What would hold interest for a horse that can stand outside with an inch of snow on its back while I can’t get out of bed when there is a degree of frost?  My primary sense is sight but a dog’s is smell, where would words lead us?

I find it difficult enough to talk to my own species, with our different languages and cultures.

If I could talk to the animals, what would I say?  It wouldn’t matter.  We wouldn’t understand each other anyway.