An excerpt from the Doggerel files dictionary entry by the popular historian Hedger Cumberway
Most of the world’s literature about Dogs has been written by humans (known to Dogs as ‘hooms’ in the original Doggerel). This was somewhat inevitable given that Doglore has never been expressed, let alone communicated, in media accessible to humans over time. Where insights exist, they are confected entirely from the perspective and experience of humans.
There are some well assessed Birdeye accounts of Doglore but neither are these records accessible to humans at present. Birdsong can only be accessed by those with a reasonable knowledge of the language, which is even older than Doggerel. Dogs have this ability, and birds have been able to communicate simple messages to Dogs for several millennia.
Ironically, Birdsong is one of the easiest and most accessible of animal languages, but humans have virtually no comprehension of it, while Dogs can speak it to a basic and functional level. Birdsong contains many words and even phrases that are identical or very close to Doggerel. This similarity has created a longstanding alliance between dogs and birds that has lasted for many millennia and will doubtless continue to do so.
Ever since the First Compact, the time that Dogs agreed to assist humans in their struggle for survival on Planet Dogue, Dogs have been patient and forbearing as they are contracted to be. Their tolerance of humans has been maintained, but this has resulted in very little spiritual integration between humans and Dogs. Here again we must note that there is a growing impression among humans that Dogs and humans do indeed share a similar spiritualism.
But this impression is misplaced. It has long been known, for example that Dogs have a sense of time largely different to that of humans. While some similarity is noticeable with servile Dogs whose behaviour is often shaped around the practices and habits of their particular family, most Dogs are free spirits. It is a myth that Dogs prefer to have a rigid schedule during the day, an assumption that has been created and developed entirely by humans for their own interests, seeking to justify their presumed ownership and control of their Dogs’ behaviour. Only servile Dogs could be said to enjoy a strict daily schedule.
But the truth is that even servile such Dogs are never less that 24 hours away from the gloriously anarchic sense of freedom which still dominates their periods of rest, silence, dreams, and solitude. But whether rendered temporarily servile or still wild and free, most Dogs’ sense of time is governed more by the colours of night and day than by the greyness of human life, especially in modern times.
It is fortunate that most humans, seeing their Dogs asleep and dreaming with their legs twitching, are unaware of the sheer intensity of such dreams. Rarely are the dreams anything to do with cats or hunting but I must end here, as I have solemnly promised not to reveal the true pastures in which these dogs rejoice. I will return to the canine sense of time in a later submission.