The way dogs judge your shoulders

I was on my third coffee of the morning, hunched over a chart in the ER, when my patient’s dog — a rescue mutt with one ear that flops like a sad flag — came in to visit. He didn’t bark. Just stood there, looked at me, then slowly lowered his head and sniffed my shoulder. I swear he sighed. Not a happy sigh. A disappointed one. Like, 'You’ve been doing this long enough to know better.' I didn’t apologise. I just handed him a biscuit and said, 'Yeah, me too.'