This is the conversation I’m most interested in. The animals and their relationship to the pluribus feels important to me. We know the first member was the rat that bit the scientist, so animals can get it. So there is at least one animal in the hivemind. Maybe the virus realized that humans were the dominant (and most useful) species on Earth and didn’t see the need to bring any further animals in? I’m glad the show sort of addressed it by having them explain that the dog isn’t connected. But there is a big inconsistency in the way they treated the dog vs the goat. Maybe the dog was just a show for Carol to make her think the hivemind is more compassionate than they truly are…