LMNOP

I guess it's starting to get a little colder.

And, later . . . 

After he takes his initial (very thorough) walk-n-sniff tour of the yard each morning to see what changed overnight, Pancake likes to sit on the back patio step for a nice elevated view of his domain. This is the view I get when I check on him through the back door as I make my iced coffee and do my first conference calls of the day.

(BTW, thanks to the random commenter who pointed out that this pic should be captioned "cuteness" and not "cutness." The title has been corrected, but the URL speaks the truth . . .)

DUDE. COUCHES ARE ALREADY COMFORTABLE.

Pan Man, looking all Mr. Wistful. Taken with cell phone cam.

This is Oliver.

This is Pancake playing with Oliver. (Oliver is a miniature Australian Shepherd. He spent about two-and-a-half hours just chasing Pancake in circles. He was basically just herding Pancake, over and over again. It was awesome.)

This is Pancake the next day, with what I think is basically the dog equivalent of a hangover.

This week, Pancake turns four years old. I would say I can't believe he's four already, but, looking back at some of his earlier pictures, I realize that's not true. He's older and so much wiser than the wiggly little pupper that came to live with me a few years ago.

Pancake before he was officially Pancake

Now, in dogs, "wisdom" is probably 90% not peeing where you're not supposed to. (Maybe it is for humans, too.) But the other piece of it is something I'm just starting to understand as I see my own dog become a bit calmer and more mature. He's calm in a way that calms me down as well--especially during the day, now that I work from home. Just imagine being in the second hour of a conference call, stressing about god-knows-what, and turning around to see this behind you:

Might as well be a big neon sign that says "Relax."