One with dog

You know how there are moments in your life that are scary? I don't mean like "Oh God, I'm going to die scary, but more like "Oh God, I've turned into my parents scary." Yesterday as I was sitting here in the little house by the lake I had one of those scary moments. It was when I realized that I could actually understand my dog.

"You gonna give me some of that?"

Now I'm not saying I can understand his barking or that I can bark back, nothing like that, just that I can tell what he is thinking. For example, I was looking at him yesterday as he was laying on the couch and I could tell he was thinking, "You know this guy isn't so bad, I think I'll keep him around." He was referring to me. And then when I let him go out, he turns and looks at me and I know he's thinking "I'm going to run around the house to make sure everything is okay, so you better appreciate it."

Then when I go outside to get wood for the stove he has this look and I know he's thinking, "Look if you picked up more of those each time, we wouldn't have to stay out here in the cold much longer." And he runs over to get one of the myriad of tennis balls in the yard, which considering there isn't a tennis court within five miles of here I am not sure exactly where they have come from, and he's thinking "I'm going to get this ball and run with it so you can't have it, I know you want to take from me but I won't let you."

And at night there is this look he has which says "Okay, it's time for you to rub my belly and if you do a good job I'll let you live here for a little longer." And of course there is the look he gives the woman in my life, and I know he's thinking "You better treat this guy good, I'm finally getting him trained and I don't want to have to leave and break in someone else."

Actually it isn't so much that I can tell what he is thinking that scares me, it's the fact that I think him and the cat are planning something, I can't tell what she's thinking.