Maggie, my link to the animal world, walked into a full length mirror the other night. Well, she what she really did was bump into it with a bemused look. Then, after standing nose to glass for a moment or two, she stumbled off to try and hide in the basement. NO, she was not hiding from me. I shout but don't whack. However, she was clearly confused. The reason became evident about an hour later when it started to rain heavily. Actually, heavily is an understatement. It rained cats and dogs. There was no thunder but, after a while, it dawned on us that she was behaving exactly as she does when it does thunder. At those times she becomes very frightened, a bit confused and driving-you-mad restless. This time, note, she was thunder-odd well before the rains came. She knew that they were coming, though. And, once more, the question is "How?" I am sure that our experience was repeated, in one form or another, across the city. I've chatted to enough dog owners to know that's true. So, our dogs and cats know when there is thunder coming, or at least, conditions that favour it. What I want to know is by which receptors inside themselves is this facilitated? And do we have the same or similar mechanisms but suppress it because we are homeoiostatic creatures ?( it means our bodies are set up to maintain a constant internal status... and don't you just love scientific words... they're always derived from Greek, like the divisions in our MediClim Index, but that's another matter.) When I was a student I did a degree in comparative anatomy. It included studying the embryology of many different mammals, and that rammed home, in a big way, how we mammalians are made to a common pattern. And that there are more things in Heaven and Earth, than are dreamt of in your philosophy, Yorrick. If dogs and cats know when thunder is coming because of receptors inside themselves then it is more than likely we have the same receptors. They may be rudimentary in form and behaviour, but I'll bet they're there. In the meantime, I'm off to bump my nose against a mirror. ....John, flattened nose, Bart