Dogs' time

Scout, the laundry basket, and my clean sheets

I've heard it said that dogs don't really have a sense of time, but I gotta say, I think my dog definitely has a sense of time. He knows when I'm not "not supposed to be home" and he's so excited when I come home unexpectedly. Usually I'm gone all day on Thursdays, but I'm wanting to go out this evening, so I decided to come home and eat lunch and let Scout out then go back to campus for office hours and class. As soon as I walked in he came out of my bedroom, where he'd clearly been sleeping, and he came into the living room with a very quizzical look of, "Who is coming into my home?" Once he realized it was me he came running up to me and started running figure 8's around the house like he does only when he gets really excited. He's still sitting on the couch next to me "smiling". He never gets this excited when I come home unless I bring someone with me. So my only conclusion is that dog's do have a sense of time, and he's excited that I came home early today. 

Of course, this will probably only increase his disappointment when I leave again in an hour or so, but still, it was a nice way to come home. I got very little sleep last night and as a result I've been in a rather irritable mood all day. Stress does that to me (and I've been stressed all week), and I'm aware of it, but I have a hard time fixing it. And it's just been little things bugging me today, like the fact that Einstein's was out of the only two coffees there that I like, and out of milk, and for some inexplicable reason they added butter to my bagel, I have no idea why. Then my bus was late and I was losing patience wasting time at the bus stop, ugh. Point being, I came home quite irritated over really minor incidences and when I get like that I get even more irritated with myself for being irritated in the first place, vicious cycle! But Scout put me in a much better mood; it's hard not to smile when you are with such a cute and happy dog. I'm so thankful for pets, they bring so much pleasure to our lives and can so quickly change my mood for the better.