Over the past 20 years, I have spent most of my free time with dogs. Each year I seem to learn more from them, but some of their traits will always remain an interesting mystery. A relatively expensive dog toy will be ignored while a common tennis ball is a fought-over treasure. Some dogs are content to curl up in a cat bed for hours, another dog isn't happy unless he or she is one foot (or less) away from me at all times.

One Boston Terrier figured out that if he heard some noise in the night, he didn't have to get out of the bed and go investigate. He'd just get his head out from under the blanket and bark. While he was burrowing back under the covers, all our other dogs would go racing off to defend home and hearth. This same Boston Terrier also taught himself how to jump up on end tables, only when I was not in sight and I had just placed a full glass of Jim Beam & Coke, coincidentally, on that same end table. He hadn't yet learned to lap up booze quietly, however, and was soon stopped of that habit. If he could have made his own drink, that may have been another matter, but he wasn't getting mine.

Our deaf dog knows hand signals and is quite well-mannered, except for those odd instances when she becomes blind and runs off to play. She fails to see the “come here” signal but can race through the maze of trees and bushes outside and make it back to the door, having regained her sign language understanding in the process.

For many years, we had a herd of Rhodesian Ridgebacks – seven of them. If not familiar with the breed, they have been used to hunt lions and make spectacular protection dogs. While out playing with them, I learned they will work in groups of three. While one was in front of me barking and generally keeping my attention, a second would get just behind my legs and a third would run at me from one side or the other, hitting me with his shoulder and knocking me over dog #2. They could perform this maneuver very quickly, even with careful observation it was hard to avoid being knocked to the ground and then having three big tongues in my face.

A little Boston Terrier who was with us at the time managed to get through a gate and found herself with the Ridgebacks. As I was running toward her, I saw the Ridgebacks get set up to hit her, but she was even faster. She just ran up to the barking Ridgeback, jumped up and bit him on the nose. He yelped, I grabbed the Boston Terrier and all was well. To this day, I remain impressed by that Boston Terrier's courage.

I have spent the past week with a cold. Headache, chills, miserable. I got in bed last night and could not get warm. I resigned myself to a cold evening. The German Shepherd put his head and paws on my legs. The Boston Terrier curled up above my head. The Jack Russell/Beagle mix snuggled in on one side of me. The little Jack Russell parked herself near my hips. Nothing spoken but everything appreciated. I was warm and went to sleep. Sometimes, dogs just know.