I just watched something unusual

[HeiressofBickworth]

My granddaughter has been out of town all week, leaving her dog at home. He's pretty mellow about it as there are three other humans here (my daughter, her husband and me).

Tonight, my daughter and I were sitting on the couch in the living room, right next to the picture window. We didn't know when granddaughter was due home as she and her friends were driving up from California after their college Spring Break trip. The dog was sitting there with us, getting attention and just hanging out. He then turned to the window, tail wagging a mile a minute, and got up on the back of the couch for a better view. I said to daughter, you'd think he knew she was going to be here soon. We chatted for a couple of minutes then I went to my computer desk and daughter went to her room to do something else. The dog remained on the couch looking out the window. At this point, granddaughter wouldn't have even been inside the city limits. After about 15 minutes, the dog started barking excitedly. Sure enough, granddaughter just got home. So how did he know she would be coming home at that time?

[elleng]

1. They KNOW!

[Hoppy]

2. Or is it possible the dog was reacting to something unreleated?

[Curmudgeoness]

3. It seems impossible

but we just don't know enough about them to know what they know. That is strange, but I would not say for sure that he didn't know.

[Phentex]

4. I think they know...

just like mine knows when I'm leaving. He's not that bright but when I drag out bags and dart back and forth checking things off my list, he hovers in my path.

Otherwise he sleeps all day!

[sinkingfeeling]

5. They just know. Mine will know when they get within 45 miles of home

when they travel with me. They start getting up and being alert. Somehow they just know.

[oldandhappy]

6. I have seen this before. They know.

I cannot explain it. The connections are real.

[TorchTheWitch]

7. good ears

I swear my first doggie, Kato, could hear certain car engines and tell them apart even whatever was different sounding about two cars of the exact same year, make and model. Then again, he could always seem to tell time down to the minute. All his life he'd wake me up at exactly 7:12 a.m. even on weekends when I didn't have to work, and I'd be burrowing under the comforter whining "But I'm not working today! It's the weekend!"

I lived in one apartment with him that had a big sliding glass door, and every single day at 6:35 p.m. he'd lick the left window for 5 minutes and then lick the right window for 8 minutes. He only did that in that one apartment though we lived in another with the same kind of door that he just ignored.

He had some really odd rituals particularly organizing everything into piles of four that had some kind of meaning to him though they didn't to me. He always put the same things in the same piles every time though with the contents of my purse it took him awhile, and he made some changes. Anything he couldn't figure out which pile it went in either got kicked under the couch, or if it was too big for that he'd hide it under his vast belly.

He could break into any cabinet, closet, drawer and even open doors by turning the knob with his mouth. I'd come home from work every day to find four piles of all of my shoes or four piles of everything in my sock drawer or four piles of the kitchen trash or four piles of my laundry... always four piles.

And he was a sneak thief. There was nothing he liked better than swiping my stuff and hiding it, but he used the same hiding place all the time so I always knew where he put something he swiped. Every time he always looked so astonished when I'd go straight to his hiding place (that little gap between the end table and the wall) and rescue whatever he stole. He always swiped small things I used frequently like my keys, sunglasses, hairbrush, toothpaste tube, pens, etc.

When we lived in the apartment we had before I moved here I once had to have someone come to fix something with the furness, and Kato would sneak up on the guy while he was stretched out on the floor doing something underneath it and pinch tools out of his tool belt and put them in his hiding place. It was so funny when he reached for something and couldn't figure out where it went while Kato was hovering next to him wagging his tail and looking very mischievous. Kato got all excited and danced around when I told the guy to check the space between the end table and the wall. He just couldn't believe it.

Funny how you get used to your pet doing weird stuff.