a fable
Two dogs who had never met before encountered each other in a small park in a very large city. The dogs were watched intently by two squirrels.
“Watch this,” said the first squirrel who was a real cut-up and wisenheimer, “I call this restaurant review.” The other squirrel watched closely.
“They’re sniffing each other’s butts,” he whispered.
“Exactly,” said the first squirrel, “They’re checking out what each other has been eating. Hence restaurant review.”
The two dogs began to growl at each other. Suddenly, each was barking at the other. Their owners had to pull them apart. The first squirrel smirked, “I take that back, they’re food critics.” The other squirrel giggled.
Then the second squirrel turned serious. “Do you think dogs talk?”
“Are you serious?” said the first squirrel. “Everyone knows dogs don’t talk. All they do is say bow wow wow, and aroo aroo. That and growling like those two losers.”
“Yeah, but we talk,” rebutted the second squirrel who considered himself somewhat of a natural philosopher.
“Of course we do, because we’re smart. Look, do dogs live in trees? Do they feed themselves? When it’s winter, do they have nice warm nests to go to? No, and you know why? They’re dumb, as in can’t talk, can’t think.  Have you ever tried to converse with a dog?”
“I have,“ admitted the second squirrel.
“How did that go?”
“Not very well. He just kept barking, making no sense, and apparently he wanted to climb the tree as he kept trying to jump up the tree trunk.”
“And why do you think he wanted to do that?” said the first squirrel, looking mighty pleased with himself.
“He wanted to get me?” said the second squirrel.
“Oh please, was he ever going to get you?”
“No.”
“You see, that wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted to be like you! A smart guy, living in a tree and conversing about the state of the universe.”
“I dunno. dogs are beyond me. What about the furless bears that walk on their hind legs that keep the dogs? They seem to talk.”
“You think they talk? All they do is chatter and shout, ha ha ha ha. I have distant cousins who tell me they’re big monkeys, but as we know, monkeys are mythical creatures. No, the hairless bears are like ants is what I figure. They look like they’re working with each other, but it’s all instinct.”
“But they seem to be organized and react to their environment. As well, there are times I suspect they are self aware.”
“What, because they keep looking at themselves in mirrors? Birds do that, and we all know what birds are like. No, they’re a lot like ants. There’s just a lot we don’t know about them. Now if they lived in trees and ate sensibly, I might feel more sympathetic. But as it is, they’re another animal waiting to kill us because they’re jealous of our lifestyle.”
With that, the second squirrel couldn’t help but be impressed by his friend’s quick thinking and sound reasoning.

The moral is: it’s easy to be smart when you live in a tree..