My Life With a Dog

Went to bed at 12:30 and was awoken by the dog who was barking madly, squealing, growling, almost screaming (whatever equivalent of screaming that a dog has -- barkeaming?)...He was so wildly out-of-control that I was instantly terrified that someone was breaking into the building or was being murdered outside or that there was an earthquake or something. If there's one thing I trust, it's my dog's instincts. But I didn't really hear anything unusual. No sirens or gunshots or catfights. I got up and tried to calm the dog, checked the apartment and the front hallway. Nothing. Tried to get back to sleep, but then 20 minutes later he started up again. I peered through the blinds, which really made him crazy, as if there were a dark face floating through the window (stay sane, girl, you don't live in a horror film, and besides, you're on the second floor). Again, nothing. Just darkness. Finally got him calm (and me calm) and back to sleep. Of course, after a restless night, he appears perfectly unaffected and normal (as normal as a dog can get) and I appear a wreck.

I suppose that's just the life of a dog, right?