psychic Sas?

Sasquatch and I were enjoying a lazy Sunday morning. Each week, we have Serious Music Sunday and we both look forward it. Sas believes, as I do, that music can provide more than just background noise. We find inspiration and solace in music and spend some of our Sundays listening to orchestral and choral works. On this morning, we were listening to John Rutter, the Cambridge Choir and the City of London Sinfonia...beautiful, soothing music for a Sunday. The gurgle of the washing machine, the hum of the dryer, a choir, dog snoring in her chair...perfect Sunday morning. Even the cats, those little rat bastards, were behaving themselves.

Sas needed a peaceful Sunday. She had had a most trying week, dealing with the changes remodeling has brought about. Dogs, while superior in every way, are creatures of habit and have problems with change. And changes have abounded at our home lately. The biggest obstacle for Sas has been the new door. H. replaced the french door that led from our family room to the deck...a door that Sas and I use every day. I had wanted the door to be hinged differently to make it more convenient for lugging out garbage and instructed H. to install a door that opened from the center, which he did. I did not take into consideration Sas's possible confusion. When she wished to go outdoors to watch for thugs or protect our home from squirrels, it had been her habit to position herself directly under the doorknob. She's a most patient being and knew that eventually, I'd notice her there and open the door. On the morning after H. had installed the new door, Sas waited where the knob had been on the old door...even though I had opened the door, she remained there until I took her by the collar and showed her the way. Poor Sas...so confused by new doors and ripped up floors. I do feel sorry for her, but it makes me laugh a little too (don't ever tell her though).

Here's something I don't understand about dogs...well, there are many things, but this is the thing I'm thinking about now...how do they know seemingly unknowable stuff? Dogs know things that they really should have no idea about. They know when the weekend is...they sleep later on the weekend, at least Sas does. Can they count and so know when Saturday is? Well, perhaps they can, but that does not explain how they know when their person is taking a vacation day. Maybe all dogs don't know, but again, Sas does. When I'm taking a vacation day, she sleeps later, just like on Saturday. And during the horror that was the ice storm, she also knew I wouldn't be going to work. How did she know that when I didn't even know myself until I had assessed the conditions. (Since the electricity was off, I didn't have the benefit of alarm clock and so slept past the usual hour...so did Sas, but on regular work days, she's awake and ready for the day when I come down the stairs. And if I happen to oversleep, she alerts me by barking until I'm up.) But here's the strangest thing...one evening last week, we were just sitting around when suddenly, Sas got up and trotted to the front door. A minute later, she came back to me and looked at me, like well, come on! I had no idea what she wanted and was engrossed in my book, so didn't pay much attention. She persisted...trotting to the door and coming back to look quizzically at me. After 3 or 4 minutes, the doorbell rang. It was H. Sas adores H. and greeted him with shameless enthusiasm. I said to him that I was surprised to see him and had not heard his truck. He explained that he had a few remodeling things to drop off, and by the way, he was driving his car since his truck was in the shop. Now, always before when Sas had anticipated H.'s arrival, I had assumed she could hear his (noisy)truck miles away and so knew when to go to the door. But on this evening, he had driven his car...he'd never driven his car to our house before, so how did she know it was H...or anybody coming to see us? And yet, clearly, she did know. Sometimes, I wish dogs could talk, but then I realize if they could, it would take away the mystique and to explain some of their powers, they'd toss off some phrase like, "Oh it's nothing...just the canine/human cerebral interface...didn't you know about that?" In much the same way as communications between men and women often have an element of mystery, so do human/dog interactions, and if you can relax and go with it, that can be part of the fun. You just have to shake your head and say, "Wow," and appreciate what you cannot understand as part of the spark that keeps things interesting.

--Ina