Lessons From the Kissing Booth

I live on a hill, and at the bottom of the hill lives a very dumb scottie dog. It tries to bark at me whenever I go up or down the hill, but most of the time it misses and barks instead at a spot I've already left.
You should all know here that I want a dog most desperately. My landlords, though, don't really care (and even if they did I'm probably not home enough).

So. Several days ago I was walking up my hill after work. The scottie dog at the bottom of the hill was barking, but I was already past its house and almost to mine. I glanced over at the house across the street (they're always having a party there) and this gigantic dog was standing at the edge of their yard, staring intently down at the scottie. I stopped and looked at it and it flicked its head towards me, but quickly faced back down the hill. 'Gee,' I thought, 'that's a big dog. I should take a picture of it.' I opened my camera and raised it, looked at the screen to zoom, and there was no dog there. I lowered it, and the dog was back. I froze. I wasn't sure if I was hallucinating the dog or if it was some sort of monster dog, but neither option was one I was very fond of.
Fortunately, when I raised the camera again it was there, and I snapped a picture. But it worries me that some days I get pretty close to losing my mind.