"What Would Dogs Do - Part 2" (short story)

Harrison looked around his living room at his research assistants and said, "First I want to thank you all for taking part in our raid to save the dogs.  We really weren't breaking any laws but it would have been embarrassing for everyone to have had an encounter with the campus cops."

Goldberg spoke up first to say, "Boss, I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say we were happy to save the dogs but this was only the capture.  What do you propose we do to really save them ?"

"Don't call me Boss, Steve.  It makes me sound like I'm driving a truckload of thugs to bust up a strike line.  I hate that.  Call me Professor, Daniel, or You Son of a Bitch but not Boss."

"Fair enough.  Since I imagine you're going to ask for proposals from each of us, I'll take the liberty of going first."  Goldman looked over to see Harrison nod his approval and then he continued, "We have been working with subpools of the dogs in the lab so I suggest keeping that same division but what I question is whether each of us has the space in our homes to keep four dogs."

Hoffman said immediately, "I'm in."

Margolis, Campbell, Gill and Sweeney followed immediately to say they also agreed.  All weren't just agreeable but were excited to get started as everyone had a great fervor for hearing the sound of the first dog talking.

"Splendid," said Harrison.  "The next matter to resolve is how we will cover each other.  There has always been someone nearby with these dogs ever since birth.  With all of them in a central location, that wasn't so difficult but your free time will be greatly constrained with them separated like this.  Are you sure you are ready for this?"

Without any delay at all, the research assistants nodded and Harrison was happy to see they didn't even each look to each other for confirmation before responding.

"I'm going to thrash this point once more as it's crucial.  The dogs are never to be put on a lead.  Only a shoulder harness is acceptable as there is otherwise a risk to the dog's larynx and this wouldn't only be destructive to the research as it would likely kill the dog."  He looked around at his research assistants and saw they were being patient with him as all of them knew full well that risk but none were going to complain about the warning.

"Sorry," continued Harrison, "I don't mean to patronise but that risk is a tremendous fear to me."

Harrison looked around and saw he was going to bore them if he kept going with that so he said, "Right then.  Let's get down to details.  My preference is to minimise disruption to what the dogs have been experiencing by keeping their assignments as they have been in the lab."

Again Goldberg was first to speak and he said, "That means you will get the oldest ones, Boss.  They're most likely to speak first."

Harrison laughed and said, "Sometimes there are perks to being Boss.  Besides, mine are not much older and I figure we all have a pretty good shot at it."

Goldberg had always been the unofficial leader of the research assistants and he again spoke first to say, "When the first dog speaks, it will become the most valuable animal in history, even more valuable than the first politician with an original thought."

"My selection of all of you for my graduate program was not based solely on your grade points.  I'm confident I can trust all of you and now I stand by that trust."  Harrison looked at the eyes of each of them and saw no weakness in any of them.

Margolis jumped into it to ask, "Professor, unless you're ready for us to split back up and get down to taking care of these dogs, could I get into an ethical matter?"

"Sure, Jane," replied Harrison.  "What are your thoughts?"

"We haven't done anything to increase the cranial capacity of the dog so the vocabulary of the dog has an inherent limitation.  Do you have any plans for getting into this area of research?"  Margolis leaned forward as she asked, clearly most interested to hear what Harrison had to say.

"In researching recombinant DNA, there are some aspects which I regard as largely mechanical and others which I consider playing God.  Were we to change the mental capacity of the dog, we would be creating a fundamentally different creature.  Giving the dog a larynx doesn't change the nature of a dog or, if you will, the essence of what dogs are.  However, I caution all of you to give very serious thought to pushing beyond that."

Harrison did not want to lecture and was sincerely interested in hearing what his assistants had to say.

Jane kept the thought going by saying, "Setting aside any metaphysics, is this really different from what Luther Burbank did in creating various types of plants?"

Gill replied, "I believe it is quite a different matter as Burbank wasn't physically altering the genome but rather was applying classic Mendelian genetics.  He didn't change the nature of any organism any more than an Arabian horse breeder changes the nature of what it means to be a horse."

Harrison sat back happily as they spoke.  This was what graduate students did best and he knew all of them wouldn't be at all fazed by continuing the discussion long into the night.  These were very bright kids and he was pleased to listen to their thoughts.  He reached to light a cigarette as this would be a good time to contentedly have a smoke but they weren't there and he reminded himself again that he was quit and he would stay quit.

All of the dogs were lying about the room, dozing and happy to be with the people who loved them the most.  The discussion did indeed run long but it was good until it split up late in the evening when all went back home hoping as always to be the first to hear his or her dogs talk.