One week ago, People published a Q&A with "a Harvard expert" explaining how the dreaming habits of pets differ from humans.
The expert helped answer and cover a series of curiosities — REM cycles and leg movements, to name a few — but it was one answer about the subjects of a dog's dreams that really resonated with people.
When owners learned their dog could possibly be "dreaming of [their] face," they were wrecked. This specific excerpt was pulled out, screenshot, and shared far and wide.
This single tweet has had 60,000 retweets since Monday this week.
BuzzFeed News has reached out to an expert in the field to shed more light on the information.
People started posting photos of their dogs sound asleep and dreaming — possibly, likely, most definitely, dreaming of them.
@wavyDonte @jamesnfranco 😭😭😭
@anneclairefl @jamesnfranco 😭😭😭😭💕💕💔💔💔
@jamesnfranco
@jamesnfranco @erkngarcia @EvelynnSensebe @gerbicapiral_
@Lenaa_bb
And it certainly did not take owning a dog to make others understand and feel how pure this information was.
While we'll never know for sure the contents of a dog's dreams, the mere thought that a dog could be dreaming about their beloved parents is enough for pet parents to weep.
We're all weeping over this, really. What's the scientific answer to "What did we ever do to deserve dogs," though? 😩
