I was driving home from work this evening and it seemed like everyone around me had a case of the Mondays. People looked down in the mouth, and my fellow motorists were quite the grumpy bunch.

As for me, I’m just glad that last week’s humidity is a thing of the past. I was in a fine mood, as the warm, stifling nights gave way to a lovely fog bank this evening; there was a distinct line of gray just to the north of me where it yielded to the setting evening sun. I was glad that I was on the cool side of it.

I made my way through the city streets, and as I sat at a stoplight, I looked at the driver in the car to my right, and then in my rearview mirror at the one behind me. Each person, including passengers, appeared to be unamused — if not in a decidedly bad mood.

Then to my right, walking along the sidewalk, I saw two women. They were walking two tiny rollerskate-sized dogs, and one of the dogs had a cone on its head. That dog may very well have been taking the women for a walk, as it was doing its best to peel out and gallop forward, seemingly unaware of its actual size in this big world. I’m pretty sure it thought its efforts were, in fact, making the women continue to put one foot in front of the other, but they weren’t about to tell it any differently.

The other canine seemed annoyed by Cone-Dog, but Cone-Dog didn’t care. It ran circles around the other one, playfully rammed into it a few times and performed a few partial leaps as it tried to jump on the other’s head. Yes, the other one was annoyed, but it was quite a show for the rest of us.

One by one, drivers around me looked at the spectacle, cracked up and huge grins spread across their faces while they all slowly started shaking their heads in amusement. Finally! The Mondays were on their way out, and people had been blessed by Cone-Dog the Small Wonder, Cone-Dog the Great.

Great is the person, the pet or the occasion that can take any frown and turn it upside down, so tonight I am thankful for the tiniest of pets that single-tailedly spread light across three lanes of traffic under a gray, foggy sky.