March 2, 2026—This was an unusual morning in the saga of my morning dog walks.

I get up early. I shower and get dressed and then I take my dog Rebe for a short walk and then feed her. On mornings that I go swimming, I get up even earlier. I skip the shower, for obvious reasons (i.e., swimming), but I get dressed and take Rebe for a short walk. On those days I wait to feed her until I get back from the pool.

Either way, I usually have to coax Rebe from her bed. She likes sleeping in.

Except on weekends when she pokes my wife Kit to get her to do the walk/feeding routine.

Today was a bit different. Today, after my shower, when I was getting dressed, I noticed Rebe watching me. As I started to put on my jacket to go out, she got up and went to the stairs. When I was slow to follow, she turned back to see where I was. It so happened that I was following, but not so closely. We went down the stairs, got her leash on, and went out the door.

What was going on? Since when is she so cooperative?

You can’t ask a dog, of course. If they had lips, you might say that dogs are tight-lipped. You can’t give them a penny (or any amount of money) for their thoughts. Scientists might say that since you can’t observe them, they don’t have any thoughts. But that’s ridiculous. They’re just not talking.

Rebe was pretty much back to normal once we got out the door. We crossed the street. She did her business, and we came back. And she hung around eagerly as I gathered her bowls and the can of dog food and dished it out. Again, as usual, she snarfed the food down in a flash. Then she went back upstairs to snooze some more.

And I went downstairs to my office to start work.

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