Super smeller

I've always been fascinated by a dog's ability to smell so well.  I've always wondered what it would be like to have that ability.  A dog has somewhere between 125 million sensory cells to many multiples of that in their noses.  Breed and size of dog determine the number of cells.  For instance a dachshund is on the lower end while a bloodhound is on the upper end.  Humans by contrast have only around 5-10 million of these same cells.  These sensory cells and the corresponding nerves that travel to the brain are on a sponge like membrane in the nose.  A human's sponge like membrane is about the size of a postage stamp whereas a dog's area containing these cells and nerves is roughly the size of a piece of paper.  The area of a dog's brain devoted to smell translation is something like 40% greater than humans.  All of these differences combined allow dogs to smell a thousand to a million times better than us.  It is amazing that they can follow scents up to a week or more old, detect tumors on cancer patients and are a big part of search and rescue operations. I saw a show recently where a dogs sense of smell has been used for disease detection through smelling human breath.  I just think that is so cool.

I have had my own brush with a doglike super smeller as of late.  Apparently, pregnancy enhances your ability to smell in some women (of course it is hormone related like everything else).  The bright side of this is that I can smell spring flowering trees way down the street and baked goodies have never smelled so good.  On the not so bright side is that the garbage has never smelled so gross and I've had to hold my breath in public bathrooms.  There was one day Kevin and I went into the Borders that was closing down and there were so many people and so many smells that I had olfactory overload (and not in a good way) and had to get out.  I could smell about 40 different types of BO and perfumes... not good. Although morning sickness has been linked with women who do start super smelling I escaped that little side effect - thank goodness! It is quite fun to be like 'ewh' or 'wow that smells great' and Kevin has no idea what I'm smelling - proof positive of my new pregnant super ability.  I tease the dogs that I can smell like them now, but they just turn up their **noses** and give me a 'you wish' look....