just at the corner store

Buying yogurt and getting quarters to finish my laundry. Two in the morning. Guy standing outside with two leashes stretched taut into the store, connected to chihuahuas. I smiled at them--why do we smile at dogs? Do we think they understand smiles?--and then walked into the place, which volumetrically is about equivalent to the second-smallest U-Haul rental truck. And saw someone of indeterminate gender paying for something at the counter, with two more tiny dogs sticking out of her/his bag, their little eyes shiny, their little paws the thickness of pencils. Oh, it was too much.