There are moments in every person’s life that they will remember for all of their days: that sunrise/sunset in that amazing place you went, your wedding day (if Say Yes to the Dress is to believed), the birth of your kids etc etc. For me, I can now add a truly unique life event to that list: the day I found out that my dog is hallucinating. Mattie hunts and bites at imaginary flies. This is a real thing that happens to dogs.

Don’t take that’s vet’s word for it! Here’s a video:

Fear not, this is apparently not a life-threatening condition. It’s just a weird one. Then again, Mattie doing weird things is not new. Thanks to her I know that dogs can reverse sneeze. I know that it’s possible for canines to digest food while they have multiple socks in their gut. I know that it’s possible for man’s best friend to get lyme disease twice. I always chalked it up to her being a character, a fun-loving dog in the mold of Allie Brosh’s Simple Dog.

So, I didn’t think that much of it when about a month ago I noticed that she had an unprecedented level of focus, staring at the wall or ceiling for apparently no reason.

“She’s growing up!” I thought (ok, no, thanks to too much X-Files as a kid I really thought she was probably seeing ghosts). When she began biting at the air, I realized something weird was happening, even on her scale. Thanks to a quick google search (“dog thinks she sees flies”), I’ve learned that some truly special dogs, who may or may not be OCD, bite at imaginary flies.

It’s not a joke anymore: my dog is actually special. Happy Thursday everyone.