Fibonacci Day

November 23.  Fibonacci Day.  I must confess – I had NO idea who or what Fibonacci is/was.  It sounds like a cross between some kind of disease and an Italian dessert.  But no – Fibonacci was at Italian mathematician in the Middle Ages.  His real name was Leonardo Bonacci.  Fibonacci for short?  Anyway he did some stuff with number sequences.  Check him out on Google.

Did you know that there have been studies to see if we dogs can do math?!  And of course they found we can.  To test our math skills, researchers showed dogs a piece of food.  Then they put it behind a barrier.  So the dogs couldn't see it.  Then they showed the dogs another piece of food.  Which they also placed behind the barrier.  Sometimes they secretly removed one of the pieces of food.  When they removed the barrier – the dogs would STARE in surprise that one of the pieces was gone.  The dogs had “counted” the pieces and knew one was missing.  So they could subtract.   In the same way, the researchers sometimes secretly put an EXTRA piece of food behind the barrier.  And the dogs also stared when the barrier was removed – because they could see (and add) the extra piece.  So from this experiment, they concluded that we dogs can add and subtract.  I could have told them that.  Heck, I can tell if Frodo gets more pieces of kibble in HIS bowl than I do.  And I DEFINITELY know if one of us gets an extra treat.  I certainly don’t need a calculator for that!

So go out and celebrate Finonacci today.  And don’t forget to give your dog an extra treat.  We’re counting on it! Pun intended.

©  Linda Wozniak