This morning I left three children sleeping in my bed (rather like a litter of puppies) and hurried downstairs to get the trash out. When I came back into the house, one of the puppies was howling at the top of his little puppy lungs. (Where "howling"="shrieking.") I hurried back upstairs and lay down beside him. He calmed down instantly.

I asked one of the other puppies (the five-year-old one) how long he’d been crying.

Her answer: "Till you came back."