Picture this: yesterday evening, Jenny is making my birthday dinner. I'm watching hockey in the living room. Cara is standing in the kitchen watching. Jenny says to Cara, "It's Eric's birthday. You should go snuggle with him." Immediately, Cara walks out of the kitchen, into the living room, jumps up on the couch and cuddles up against me.

Seriously. The dog understands spoken English. She's awesome. :)

Charlie, of course, is at least smart enough to follow her lead, and cuddled up on my other side. Which is not a bad way to spend a bit of one's birthday evening, I have to say.