Wow, those are some great and amazing stories. I agree its so sad that they just want to be with us all the time (are we really that much fun to be around???
). And I do recognize some of these behaviors. I totally agree that they understand our routines and can adjust. Most notably, they certainly do learn quickly when you are going to work and will be out all day, vs. when you are going out on the weekend (we rarely go anywhere during the work week, as we hate to leave them at home). Any time we are going out on the weekend, they get very nervous that we may leave them and are super excited when they get to come along. I just did not think that Gatsby could know that I was going to be gone for a while based on packing, but you have me convinced. There was nothing else to upset him so it must have been that... Rather than trying to desensitize him to packing, I think I will try the same thing next time and that should confirm that he is SUPER SMART. He did fool me the other day, when he was nagging me sitting at the PC, so I told him to go get a particular toy, then he eventually disappeared and I forgot about it. Only hours later did I notice that he actually did go downstairs to bring that toy for up, it was right outside my office and I know it was downstairs. He is crazy smart and his sister is too, just in a different way.
