Dogs Can Have Nightmares

Little Pepito, our ancient chihuahua-mix, who we adopted after his previous family abandoned him, woke me up at 3:30 AM this morning, barking downstairs.

Pepito's barks are unusual. He doesn't really bark so much as he shouts, "HEY!" When he has a barking spasm, he stands and yells, "HEY!" at a rate of once every 5-10 seconds.

He almost always sleeps through the night, but this morning, we was clearly upset about something. I went downstairs and as soon as he saw me, he started crying. I sat next to him and he pressed himself into me as hard as he could and cried for a while. He finally calmed down and faded into his contented moans as I petted him.

Poor thing. I wonder if he had dreamed that he had been deserted again.

Pepito in a happier moment with a new friend of his at the park.