Sometimes it is time for a lighter theme. I offer this story as promised to seashell and TheraP in response to this comment thread.

There is the anthrocentric story of the invention of the tennis ball. That version by Kimberlee Leonard, essentially states that tennis came from "ancient Arabic sport" and migrated to early England. She goes on to say:

The first tennis balls were made of leather that wrapped wool or fur around the ball with string. They date as far back as the early 11th century with no one credited for the invention.

However, there is a different story of the tennis ball. It was told to me by a dear friend (now departed) who had lineage back to the early dingos. She passed the story on to me saying that it had passed via species memory to her.

Grady was an afficianado of tennis balls. She always loved them - to chew on, to chase, to bounce off her nose. Every tennis ball was her ball, and she never lost a tennis ball in her life. She always knew where each one was - even those that ended up behind the bookcase from the discouraged indoor playing of ball.

Having deep experience with her love, and indeed obsession, with tennis balls, I asked her once what was the deal. She told me this story.

Long, long, ago her great great great (bunch of greats) grandmother Surí (pronounced sue - ree) had an idea.  She needed a multipurpose implement for pups and adults for training, exercise, and entertainment.  And it had to be useful for training humans as well. Surí thought long and hard and came up with the requirements for her tool.

Requirements

•     Right size for her people's mouths
•     Chewable and flexible
•     Hide or fur to massage the gums and clean the teeth
•     Keep the kids occupied while the adults went about adult business
•     It needed to "skitter" for skill building and entertainment purposes
•     Durable
•     Attractive to humans

Surí was of dingo ancestry, and like Grady carried the deep knowledge of the dingos. She knew that all creation starts in the dream world. So Surí set the requirements of the tool firmly in mind and entered the Dream World. In the Dream World she walked and walked. She crossed the land constantly looking for what would meet her requirements. She traveled a long way, grew tired and thirsty, but she kept her requirements constantly at the forefront of her mind. Finally, something plopped down on the sand in front of her. It was a round object that seemed to be made from some small animal. It was round, and rolled directly under her feet. Surí stepped back and circled the object that seemed to have dropped from the sky. She observed it closely, and then moved in and touched it with her paw. It seemed relatively firm, and did not seem to be alive. So, she smacked it with her foot and it skittered away. Surí smiled.

She then bent her head down and picked it up. It was firm, but had some give under her teeth. She lay down with the Dream World gift and gave an experimental chew or two. It seemed very close to what she had come to the Dream World to find. She got up and put the gift back down, and studied every aspect of it. Once it was set firmly in her mind Surí left the Dream World.

Now she knew what she needed, but had no way of making it herself. She needed a human to actually create the tool. She turned to her pet human Resa. She had a clear idea of what she would do next.

She waited for Resa to go to sleep and then insinuated herself into Resa's dream. She called up the exact specifications of the gift from the Dream World. Placed it in her mind, and trotted up to Resa. Surí dropped the gift in front of Resa and yipped. Resa looked and walked on. Picking up the gift, Surí trotted along until Resa tired and she sat down on a rock under a tree. Surí placed the gift in Resa's lap and backed off wagging her tail.  Resa picked up the gift and looked at it, turned it over in her hands. Surí yipped, wagged harder, and backed up a few more steps. Finally, Resa tossed the gift in Surí's direction. Surí caught it and placed it back in Resa's lap and went through the entire procedure again and again.

Morning came and Resa awoke. The day went on as usual, and no gift was produced. Night after night Surí entered Resa's dreams and introduced the gift. Surí waited, but there was no movement of the gift from the Dream World to this world. So Surí tried to figure another way. Finally, she realized that humans seemed to be a bit self absorbed. She thought that if she could make the gift seem like something useful to humans that Resa might make the gift for herself. So Surí invented a human game where humans would use the gift to play with each other. They could use some sort of bat to chase around and smack the gift back and forth.  With this idea firmly in mind, Surí waited for Resa to sleep and then entered her dream and planted the idea. She stressed the idea of people laughing and playing and being companionable.

The next morning Resa awoke with a smile on her face. She spent the day gathering materials and in the evening sat down and made the gift and two "rackets". Surí was ecstatic.

The next day she followed Resa as she went to her friend's home and showed her the gift and the "rackets" and explained her (Resa's) idea. She and her friend played the game with the gift. They had fun and said they would do it again tomorrow. Resa and Surí went home and Surí couldn't wait to actually get hold of the gift. So she was highly disappointed when Resa put the gift and the rackets away where Surí could not get to them. Clearly there was more work to do.

So night after night Surí would enter Resa's dreams to get her to play with Surí with the gift. Finally one day as Resa and her friend rested in the shade after playing their game, Resa threw the gift - just as Surí had shown her repeated times. Surí chased down the gift and brought it immediately back to reinforce the real purpose of the gift.

Hence was born the game of tennis and the tennis ball.

But the story did not end there.

Many, many years later another descendent of Surí's by the name of Samuel had a pet human named Walter Wingfield. Carrying the genetic memory of Surí', but living in the time of the invention of rubber, Samuel thought that the gift could be improved. So Samuel drew up his requirements given modern materials, entered the dream world, and waited for his desire to materialize. Ultimately it did, and Samuel made careful observations of this new tennis ball. He then took that gift into Walter's dreams. To make a long story short, Walter invented the modern game of lawn tennis and got Charles Goodyear to produce the tennis balls for it.

Grady stopped her story and looked at me. I said "That's it?"

Grady: Yes

Me: So the tennis ball as well as the game of tennis was invented by your ancestor Surí'?

Grady: Yes.

Me: And another ancestor Samuel invented the modern tennis ball and lawn tennis?

Grady: Yes.

Me: So where does the training humans come in?

Grady: Playing fetch is elementary training of humans to be responsive to our cues. If they can play fetch, then they are trainable. (She paused expectantly and tilted her head)

Me: I take it you want to play now?

Grady laughed and flew out the door shouting over her shoulder "You're trainable!"