Day 9

47: Smart Pets. Write a very short story about an animal -- a dog, cat, or parrot, say -- that is used to spending time around humans. Let this pet observe, with familiarity yet bafflement, the way males and females of this other species interact. The animal cannot understand much of our language, so its observations will have to be based on physical behavior and gestures, but it could still be an intelligent observer, with its own built-in biases and clarities humans are incapable of (the sense of smell, for example -- a dog would know when a woman was menstruating or a man just had sex with someone else). A caged animal would have a different perspective than an animal free to roam. 600 words.