Koontz continues:

I’m something of a workaholic and when Trixie first came, I was in a habit of working from about 7 in the morning right through until 6 p.m., 6:30, even 7. The very first day that Trixie arrived, at 5 p.m. she came to my desk and stood looking over the top of it at me, giving me one of those very noble, profound, but intense golden retriever looks. I could see her behind me, her reflection in my computer screen. I thought it was funny. She stared and stared and stared and I turned. It was only then that she actually moved. She came around the side of the desk and stood looking at me and I said, “What is it? What’s wrong?”

She started pushing her head under my arm and throwing my arm off the keyboard. This dog did this every day at 5 p.m. Eventually, I gave up and said, all right – this is a new rule of life in the household, I don’t work past 5. She totally changed us.