Cats and Dogs: Creatures of Habit and Why Dogs Can’t Talk

Michael Berman, UK

Michael Berman’s published work includes The Power of Metaphor for Crown House, The Nature of Shamanism and the Shamanic Story for Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Shamanic Journeys through the Caucasus and Shamanic Journeys, Shamanic Stories for O-Books, Journeys outside Time for Pendraig Publishing, and Tales of Power for Lear Books. A Bridge to the Other Side: Death in the Folk Tradition and Georgia through Earth, Fire, Air and Water were both published by Moon Books in 2012. ELT publications include A Multiple Intelligences Road to an ELT Classroom, In a Faraway Land (a resource book for teachers on storytelling), On Business and for Pleasure (a self-study workbook), and English Language Teaching Matters, written with Mojca Belak and Wayne Rimmer. For more information please visit www.Thestoryteller.org.uk, E-mail: berman.michael@rocketmail.com

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Creatures of habit
Why dogs can’t talk

Creatures of habit

Creatures of habit

Level: Upper Intermediate to Advanced

Target Audience: Adults

Language / Skills Focus: Listening & Speaking

Materials: Photocopies of the story / worksheet to hand out after the storytelling.

In class

Pre-listening: Find out from the person sitting next to you if they prefer cats or dogs as pets and the reasons for the choice they make. You could also find out if they know any pets who are just like their owners. And if so, in what way?

While-listening: Pause after “she came home from one of her daily outings (to put on her “starving to death” act for the next door neighbour and to earn a second breakfast for her Oscar-winning performance) to find …” and ask the learners to predict what.

Post-listening: Hand out the photocopies. Ask the learners to work through the activities under the story individually, and then to compare their answers in pairs or small groups.

Find words in the story which mean the same as: a. somehow sense / b. had a great deal in common / c. far from happy / d. refrained from openly showing her distaste / e. in a rather offhand manner / f. bribe her with tasty morsels of her favourite food / g. starving to death / h. horror of all horrors / i. ensconced / j. a substantial reward / k. cut all her ties with the past

Cat Idioms: 1-j / 2-m / 3-i / 4-o / 5-a / 6-c / 7-p / 8-q / 9-d / 10- e

Comments

How do you feel about having a regular daily routine or are you the kind of person who prefers more variety? What are the advantages / disadvantages of having pets as opposed to having children? Do you think having a pet is of any psychological benefit? If you could be born again as an animal, what would you like to be, and why? Select some well-known people who are currently in the news. Which animals do they remind you of, and why? – These are just some of the questions that you might like to discuss with the class after telling the story. And if there is time available, you could complete the lesson by handing out copies of the second tale, which takes the form of an ordering activity.

Creatures of habit: Text

MiciaPusskins moved in to number sixty at the same time as the owner of the flat. He found her crying on his doorstep the first morning he woke up there and she had been with him ever since. Cats somehow sense who will look after them well and it seemed that she’d made a wise choice. After all, the two of them had a great deal in common – both being creatures of habit, who disliked any form of change to their well-established routines.

Every night, for example, Micia would wait until her master had settled down in bed, then jump up and deposit herself on his stomach to join him in his repose. And when, as he invariably did, as regularly as clockwork, he turned over on his side, she would then creep under the covers and snuggle up next to him.

However, one day the inevitable happened and Master found a new partner. As you can imagine, the new arrival was far from happy about the sleeping arrangements in the household. However, being unsure of her position so early in the relationship, she wisely refrained from openly showing her distaste. And she made an extra special effort when Master was at home to show affection for Micia as she quickly realised how important the cat was to him. But Micia treated her new Mistress in a rather offhand manner despite her attempts to bribe her with tasty morsels of her favourite food. She was no fool and somehow sensed that something was not quite right although she couldn’t quite put her paw on what it was.

Soon enough Micia’s intuition proved to be correct because she came home from one of her daily outings (to put on her “starving to death” act for the next door neighbour and to earn a second breakfast for her Oscar-winning performance) to find, horror of all horrors, a dog ensconced in her place.

And that was the last Master saw of Micia for despite the notices pinned on every lamp post in the neighbourhood offering a substantial reward for information about the missing cat, MiciaPusskins never returned.

The Master never forgave his lover, for letting himself be persuaded into accommodating her latest acquisition. And, soon afterwards, she moved out too. As to her reason for leaving, the unbearable predictability of his lifestyle. She was young and, quite naturally, was looking for more excitement, something she knew she could never have with him. As for the Pusskins, she never found out about this because she’d already cut all her ties with the past and forged a comfortable new existence for herself in a leafy suburb nearby. They were an elderly couple with no children and that suited her just fine.

Creatures of habit: Worksheet

Find words in the story which mean the same as:

seem to know intuitively / were very similar in character / not at all content / stopped herself from showing her true feelings / quite rudely / to win her over with delicious titbits / dying from lack of food / the worst possible scenario / firmly established / a considerable amount of money as an incentive / said goodbye to her old life

Match the idioms with their explanations. As you can see, there are more explanations than idioms so you will not need to use them all.

1. You haven’t got a cat in hell’s chance!
2. You look like something the cat’s dragged in!
3. Don’t let the cat out of the bag!
4. What’s up? Has the cat got your tongue?
5. Stop playing cat and mouse with me.
6. That put the cat among the pigeons!
7. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.
8. When the cat’s away, the mice will play.
9. You think you’re the cat’s whiskers!
10. I nearly had kittens when you told me!

1. Don’t play games with me!
2. Have you got a sore throat?
3. That’s caused a lot of trouble.
4. You act as if you’re someone special.
5. You gave me an awful shock.
6. That’s solved the problem.
7. You think your hair is silky smooth.
8. You’re certain of success.
9. Keep it a secret.
10. You’ve got no hope of success.
11. Make sure you tell everyone.
12. You made me ecstatically happy.
13. You look a real mess.
14. You look absolutely stunning.
15. Why don’t you say something?
16. There’s not only one solution to a problem.
17. People tend to act irresponsibly when there is nobody around to supervise them.

Why dogs can’t talk

Level: Lower Intermediate – Upper Intermediate

Target Audience: Secondary, Adults

Language / Skills Focus: Listening, Speaking & Creative Writing

Materials: Photocopies of the worksheet to hand out post-listening

In class

Pre-listening: You can board the following questions for the learners to focus on during the telling of the tale:

1. Why were the dogs unhappy?
2. What did they decide to do about it?
3. What rumour did the old dog tell the others about?
4. What decision did they take as a consequence?

Alternatively, you could pin a picture of a dog on the board and conduct a brainstorming session to find out how much the class already know about the animal. The information they provide can be noted around the picture and so take the form of a mind map. You’ve come up with a lot of interesting information about dogs but not with the answer to the question that forms the title of today’s story – Why Dogs Can’t Talk

Post-listening: Hand out the work sheets for the learners to work on the ordering activity individually or in pairs.

ANSWERS: 1-a / 2-c / 3-i / 4-h / 5-j / 6-g / 7-e / 8-d / 9-f / 10-b

You can then invite the learners to work in groups and to develop parallel stories of their own. Possible titles could include Why Men Can’t Fly and Why Fish Can’t Live out Of Water.

Comments

Why Dogs Can’t Talk is an adaptation of a North American Indian tale obtained from the Cree in Northwest Canada. Creation Myths can be found in a number of traditions and provide a rich source of material to lead into parallel story writing activities of this kind. Further examples can be found in another of my books In a Faraway Land, published by O-Books in 2010.

The story: A long time ago, animals could talk just as well as humans. In one village, the dogs began to complain that the people did not treat them well. They had to carry heavy loads all day and at night they had to sleep outdoors in the cold snow. They did not get very much to eat either and some dogs were even beaten. “We work had but we’re treated like dirt,” the dogs would say to each other. They decided to call a special meeting. They talked about their problems and tried to decide how to solve them. Then one old dog spoke up. “You should be grateful for what you have. Yesterday I heard my master say that soon he will send one of his dogs to carry a message to his relatives many miles away. If all the people make us carry messages, we will never see our families.” Not surprisingly, the dogs were frightened when they heard this rumour. They decided they would stop talking so they would not have to carry messages. And to this day, dogs still don’t talk.

Why dogs can’t talk: Worksheet

Reconstruct the story by putting the following sentences in the correct order:

1. A long time ago, animals could talk just as well as humans.
2. And to this day, dogs still don’t talk.
3. In one village, the dogs began to complain that the people did not treat them well.
4. Not surprisingly, the dogs were frightened when they heard this rumour.
5. Then one old dog spoke up. “You should be grateful for what you have. Yesterday I heard my master say that soon he will send one of his dogs to carry a message to his relatives many miles away. If all the people make us carry messages, we will never see our families.”
6. They decided they would stop talking so they would not have to carry messages.
7. They decided to call a special meeting. They talked about their problems and tried to decide how to solve them.
8. They did not get very much to eat either and some dogs were even beaten.
9. They had to carry heavy loads all day and at night they had to sleep outdoors in the cold snow.
10. “We work had but we’re treated like dirt,” the dogs would say to each other.

1 ___ 2 ___ 3 ___ 4 ___ 5 ___ 6 ___ 7 ___ 8 ___ 9 ___ 10 ___

Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.