Weirdest thing happened on my drive to work this morning. I was driving along Trade Zone Blvd., and it became clear that there was some kind of problem - traffic was backed up and then a bunch of cars started to pull around this one white minivan, which wasn't going anywhere.

So pretty soon, I was the car behind the minivan, and the driver was clearly in distress of some kind - he (or she, I couldn't quite tell) kept pumping the brakes and staring out the side and rear windows as if looking for something. I was just starting to pull over so I could see if he needed help, when a little dog sauntered out from under the car. It had been curled up in the shade just underneath the minivan's rear axle. (One of those little kind of pug-faced dogs. I described it to a coworker as a bulldog, but I think I got it wrong - it was smaller and not as barrel-chested, but it had the same kind of squashed up face.)

The dog sat down in the road and wagged its tail at me, and then got up and meandered its leisurely way toward the shoulder. I drove around it, and then thought that maybe I should pull over and try and catch it and contact its owner. (It had a collar and a prominent tag - definitely not a stray.) But then I saw that some good person behind me had pulled over with the same thought, and since I had a meeting to get to, I decided to let them play good samaritan.

As far as I can tell, when the minivan stopped at the light, the dog trotted right out and plunked itself down underneath it. I'd bet that it has a habit of sleeping underneath its owner's car. If I ever get a dog, remind me to not let them do that.

I was also quite impressed that although this was 8:45 in the morning and prime commuting time, and traffic really did get snarled up, there was no pointless honking, shouting, or other bad driver behavior. Guess dogs really do bring out the best in people.