I was watching a dog napping next to a neighboring table at the hotel terrace. A large and handsome dog, too. It reacted to every sound, no matter how slight, albeit in a different sort of way. Sometimes it raised its ears only, on other occasions it opened its eyes, too, and only rarely it lifted its head to take a better look of the world around it. The louder and/or closer the sound, the stronger the reaction. At some point a dog on a leash walked by quite some distance from the napping dog. I could not hear the patter of its paws, but the napping dog lifted its head at once. And it stared in the direction of the departing dog on a leash long after it walked by the hotel terrace. No surprises here, but my heart still went to the napping dog. Having watched it long and carefully enough, I could tell there was a good deal one could learn from it.