“Why does Cleo keep crying?!” My mom was frantic. “I think she’s hurt. I don’t know what’s wrong!” Turns out, my dog Cleo had a cut on her ear that we found days later. What if we could figure out a way for her to better communicate with us, and cut out all that confusion? I believe someday, we will.
   

Most animals talk to each other through noises. Dogs bark; pigs snort; horses neigh. I think in the future, humans will discover ways to translate more specifically what these noises mean. We know dogs understand some of our human noises, but really just certain “commands”. There’s a great potential to expand on that vocabulary, but I believe chimpanzees will lead the way first, because they are best equipped to meet our minds. I’ve had the opportunity to meet chimps that were raised by humans in a zoo. Unlike others, these animals walked bipedally just like the humans who raised them. They also acted very human-like as they interacted with nearby objects. One grabbed a soccer ball, and used it as a seat to hang out and rest for awhile. During a visit to Tufts Veterinary Hospital, I saw the skull of a chimp, and learned they have a very large brain chamber.
     

More advanced communication between species seems even more possible when you consider that even animals and plants have ways of signaling to each other. I remember learning in science class, that when certain pests eat grass, the broken-down blades produce a smell. That scent then makes certain insects attack whatever is harming the grass. It’s that same sweet odor you smell when mowing the lawn. In a way, it seems the grass is communicating with insects and even people, which is really pretty mind-blowing.
   

I think animals are a lot smarter than most of us realize, and hopefully in the future humans will make more of an effort to interpret their signals as we continue trying to teach them ours. It’s not reasonable to think that a horse or pig will speak English, but if we can start to understand their language who knows what could happen. Maybe someday my dog Cleo will be able to get her message across when she cries, and we won’t have to keep guessing.