My Library

such knowing without awareness … I understood more this new Human school. (Ready to go again? This is my favorite.) I flickered. (Well, uh, I’m not so sure. Maybe we ought to …) (This one we designed ourselves,) BB cut in. (If you don’t like it, give me a signal and we’ll pull a quick skip.) Reluctantly, I reached and stretched, followed. CLICK! I am lying down in soft thick grasses, lying on my side … I open my eyes … tall trees surround me on all sides, their leaf-laden branches form a canopy far overhead, sunlight filters through to provide good but not overbearing luminescence … a large tan-colored panther is standing over me, staring at me intently. (Come on, RAM … let’s play!) I roll over and stand up … stand up!… I have four legs! How sure and stable it feels!… my head is out in front of my body, now I have to turn to look at my back and hips … fur-covered, sleek … what’s that waving behind me?… it’s a tail, I have a tail … I think about moving it, and it jerks … back and forth, back and forth, how about that!… but it goes up and down just a little bit, more down than up … a scent gets my attention … smells, smells, I didn’t know so many different smells existed … know instantly if they’re near or far … the signal input is as good as or better than my seeing … and hearing, I could know everything just from listening … I flex my legs, pull in my claws … yes! I have claws! I feel great! Watch out, world, here I come … such a glorious sense of being alive … totally alive, I want to run, jump, climb … (Well, come on, then!) The tan panther lopes off through the trees, and I follow … faster, now into a gallop … now running all out, dodging through the trees, easily avoiding low branches … the exhilarating flow of smells passing my nose and I sample them all … my eyes and ears picking up, identifying and sorting a myriad of signals, all familiar … a large