How do they know?

How much do dogs understand that we cannot fathom?

Donna spent most of last week under the care of some wonderful nurses, doctors, and support staff at 91原创 Memorial Hospital.

Sam and Pippin were lost without her. The first couple of days, every time I came home, they ran to the gate, as they always do鈥� only to be disappointed that their Mom wasn鈥檛 there, just a little slower to get out of the car.

After the first couple of times, Sam began to cry every time she wasn鈥檛 there, and I鈥檇 have to hug him and tell him it was going to be all right, that Mom would come home soon. But not right now.

He鈥檇 settle down, but sink into a kind of despondency for a an hour or so.

You can鈥檛 explain things properly to a dog. Even if children don鈥檛 understand what鈥檚 going on, you can at least explain to them, and whether or not they accept it, they can know that Mom will be back.

Sam couldn鈥檛 understand, and he couldn鈥檛 know.

But he did allow me to throw his duck for him. And every time we were done, he left the duck at the gate鈥� for Donna.

I鈥檓 pretty sure Pippin thought that I鈥檇 murdered Donna and dumped her body.

Or at the very least, that I had lost her and simply wasn鈥檛 searching hard enough.

His looks were very accusatory.

Every time I left home to visit Donna at the hospital, I was snubbed. They wouldn鈥檛 even take their traditional 鈥渂ye-bye bones.鈥�

Until the day Donna came home.

They were back to their jovial selves, eagerly and expectantly seeing me out the door.

I didn鈥檛 even know for sure that she was going to be released鈥� but they knew.

When I returned with Donna, we were both concerned that they would explode with joy 鈥� which they would routinely do any time either of us returned after an hour or two away.

I made several preparations, erecting barriers and limiting access to ensure that they did not do their still-fragile Mom an injury.

And they didn鈥檛.

They just didn鈥檛.

They were as overjoyed as expected.

And yet they remained uncharacteristically reserved and gentle.

They may not understand us all the time, but there is something going on in those brains of theirs that we shall never fully comprehend.