My mother is in town. According to Google she lives two thousand, two hundred and forty-four point fifty-three miles from me. (That’s 2,244.53 for those who can’t make sense of the numbers.) We video chat.  We talk on the phone almost daily. She mails me newspaper articles that she thinks I should read. But as you can imagine, we don’t see each other every other weekend so when she is here, it’s precious time; time that she often uses to bestow her wisdom on me.

So, yesterday, we took my dog out for what she labeled a short version of the Bataan Death March … and after an hour and half of babbling she gives me this:

“Because dogs have four legs, do they get twice as tired as we (humans) do or half as tired?”

My mind was baffled. Physics would have it that they (dogs) are half as tired because they have more to do the same amount of work, yet physics would also argue that they are twice as tired because they have to do twice as much work.

Insert loud sigh. I couldn’t answer the question because any answer my right-side brain wants to give is easily refuted by my left side … my mother, it would seem, had come up with the second installment of what came first the chicken or the egg.

If my dog could talk, he’d probably say: “Lady, I have four legs because I’m built for greatness. I’m not twice as tired or half as tired — I’m tired of you two overthinking everything. And can I have a cappuccino. Extra foam, please.”

So, tell me what you think? Do dogs get twice as tired or half as tired?  And while you’re at it, what about that pioneer chicken? Did he, or she, show up before the egg or does it depend on if that “pioneer” chicken was a he or she? Just something to think about.

Cover image created with Jetpack.

If this spoke to you, be sure to “like” and share it over social with someone who’d appreciate the flavor …

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