Dale here:

How does she know?

How does Sancha know that I am sick and stressed and that my applications need to go out tomorrow and the compositions and tests need to be graded and I'm supposed to start teaching a novel tomorrow that I still haven't read and that my throat and head hurt?

How do I know she knows?

I submit the following: she has not even glanced at her blue elephant in weeks, months maybe. During the summer, it has been all about walks and interactive entertainment, thank you. And yet suddenly today she is now going on hour number two of sustained blue elephant kneading, which she interrupts only to glance at me with concern every half hour or so and to lean a little further against my leg. Like she's saying "I'm here if you need me, but otherwise I'm getting along just fine and don't worry, this elephant won't be bothering you any time soon."

It's things like this that make me so nuts about her that I spend my time blogging and not doing all the things mentioned in paragraph one...leading to further stress, leading to further doggie understanding, leading to more blogging...IT IS ALL HER FAULT, DARNIT! I SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT A CAT!