The Shape of Days

I’m sitting here at my desk working on chapter 4, proofing it for typos before posting it here on the site. By the desk is a rolling cart, and on top of the cart is the computer and various accessories thereof. There’s a shelf on the bottom of the cart where the laser printer is, and under that shelf is a gap of about three inches. My dog has wiggled his way into that gap and gone to sleep. He only weighs about six pounds, so he fits under there like it was built for him. He loves to get in there, I guess because it’s warm. The computer vents downward, and hot air blows into that space. (These Power Macs make really effective space-heaters, let me tell you.)

Sometimes he snores. But right now he’s not snoring. Right now he’s dreaming. His legs twitch — I can hear the rustling under the cart — and he yips. He yips in his sleep. When he dreams.

That just blows my mind. The realization that dogs dream, I mean. I’ve never been a big dog person until these past few years — he’s not actually my dog, but rather my girlfriend’s. I’ve come to learn that dogs are smarter than I realized, and also that they’re creatures of habit just like we are. Playing, he tore the throat out of one of his toys a few days ago. I took it away from him because he was getting stuffing all over everywhere, and he was depressed. He missed it. Last night I sewed it back together and gave it back to him, and he was happy to see it. Dogs are more complicated than I realized.

But to think that they dream … wow. That one just bakes my noodle. What do dogs dream about? Chasing squirrels? Lying under the computer cart? Napping? Do dogs dream about napping?

He’s awake now. I can hear him yawn and stretch. Dogs stretch. These little things just blow me away.

• Too tired to continue, too afraid to stop
• Dreams of baptism
• I caught a nasty dream