Ash
We’re still getting mom up at 4am. She’s tried keeping us up later at night, changing our dinner time, making our walks longer, even pleading with us. We just can’t help ourselves.
It starts with Tess sticking that pesky nose of hers in mom’s face. She calls it testing the waters. I call it selfish. Mom whispers for her to go. Tess obliges but as she walks past Jack she flicks her big red tail in his face.
Jack is rudely awakened by Tess and her tail. Remember he didn’t hear Tess come in cause he was sleeping and he’s deaf. Jack begins to moan. It does no good to tell him to shush. As Jack’s funny sounds get louder Tess comes back into the room.
Acting as if she had nothing to do with waking Jack, she pretends to greet mom for the first time. While mom tells Tess to go, I jump on mom and pin her arms next to her. Then I very carefully begin to wash her face from ear to ear and chin to nose.
It takes about ten seconds for mom to cry uncle. When she whispers “okay” I jump off the bed and grab her slipper. Tess prances towards the door and Jack heaves himself out of his deep soft bed. I trot back and forth with the slipper looking for something better to swipe. Once I found dad’s wallet, but mom didn’t think that was funny.
Mom stumbles to the closet and puts on her heavy sweats. She lists a little when she walks cause she only has one slipper. We dogs try not to trip her on the way to the door. There she tells me to drop the slipper, which she insists on having in her hand before she opens the door. Next thing you know the door opens and the day begins.
One time I asked mom how she felt about us getting her up so early. She told me it’s hard to roll out of bed at 4am. She’d really like to sleep just one more hour. Then she told me something that almost made me cry.
Mom says our pack won’t always be the same. We’ll get older and one day we won’t be able to do all the goofy stuff we do now. Rather than force us house dogs to let her sleep later, she’d rather treasure the good parts of getting up so early.
Mom says if you change how you look at things you can be a lot happier. She says every minute of life can be special if we let it. So when Tess starts prowling in the wee hours of the morning, she’s just looking after her pack. When Jack moans he’s asking for reassurance. Me licking her awake makes her laugh. What better way to start the day than laughing?
I think I understand what mom is trying to say. If you stop insisting on having things your way, you may find that your life is just the way you like it. Think about it. Gotta run!
Ash