Never underestimate an old lady who loves dogs and was born in april Shirt

Earlier this year, I lost my dog Remy. He was a true partner and a regal hound, perceptive and expressive; sometimes, it seemed that he knew what I was going to do before I did. During his last days, I often found myself holding my breath, hoping that by doing so, I might stop time as well, and keep death from coming for him.Remy had been with me— loyal, attentive and engaged—for nine years. In many ways, this very personal and individual relationship was a manifestation of those bonds that humans have had with canines for thousands of years. Before horses, before cattle and swine, before goats or domesticated animals of any kind, dogs were by our side. While the exact point at which the wolf (Canis lupus) became the dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is still up for debate, we do know that we have been running with canine companions for roughly the past 30,000 years.In the early days, the relationship was fragile, shaped by our separate and mutual needs, and by the harsh environment of the Late Pleistocene world—including the last ice age, when much of the planet was covered by glaciers. But by evolutionary chance, the unique bond that began so long ago has grown stronger through the eons and is now encoded within our very DNA. Today, dogs understand us internally—studies show hormonal and neural activity expressly reserved for human interaction and communication— and they keep us grounded externally, connected to the wild in ways large and small.

Never underestimate an old lady who loves dogs and was born in april Shirt

Outcompeting the Neanderthals Life was tough for humans when proto-dogs first came on the scene. Hominids (our early modern human ancestors) had been using tools for more than 2.5 million years, and fire for several hundred thousand. For our species, Homo sapiens, which emerged about 170,000 years before our future canine companions, progress was relatively slow. Between 90,000 to 70,000 years ago, widespread drought and unstable climate caused a significant reduction in the Homo sapiens population, and remaining tribes had to compete with their Neanderthal contemporaries for resources.ET THE BARK NEWSLETTER IN YOUR INBOX!Sign up and get the answers to your questions.Email Addressyour email addresOne of science’s favorite adages is that correlation does not confirm causation. But it has not gone unnoticed by researchers that immediately following this time of struggle —between 50,000 to 33,000 years ago—a period of rapid human cultural development (including ritualistic burials, art and clothing) and advancement of complex hunting techniques coincided with the first traces of intentional human-canine interactions. In fact, some, including most notably anthropologist Pat Shipman, have argued that it is thanks to humans’ new wolf-dog companions that our species out competed, and ultimately survived, the Neanderthals.