This handsome fellow, Elijah Blue, has just recently decided his first potty break of the day should occur between 3 and 4 am.He has planted himself beside my bed and stared me awake. Ever felt the intensity of someone staring at you? Perhaps it was the squeaking and sneezing, coupled with the staring that woke me.
At any rate, I stumble out of bed, gather my slippers and bathrobe and head to the east stoop. He's out the door like a greyhound at the track. Lord have mercy, I am so glad I let him out!
After he's out, I go to the kitchen...may as well make coffee since I'm up. I really wish I were one of those people who could go back to sleep, but I'm not. Once I'm up, I'm up for the duration. Besides that, I can't go back to sleep until Blue is back inside...
I always cut on the big floodlight in the backyard so I can see him running from behind the studio, around the garden, over to the guest house and back up the west side of the house. Once I see him heading my way, I go around to the kitchen porch on the north side of the house and cut that light on.
The lights are more for my benefit. Blue has limited vision is his left eye and no vision in his right. We had been here a few years before this happened so he became comfortable with the surroundings. If you were to watch him running around in the yard, you'd have no idea his vision is impaired. Maybe...
He puts on a really good show. Reminds me of the figure skaters who hit the ice and then swiftly get up and act like it was all part of the routine. He occasionally bumps into things, backs up, and decides on an alternate path. Bless his heart.
Bless his heart, indeed. After 2 days of this crazy 3 in the morning stuff, my other half and I decided last night that we're not to going to let Blue nap so maybe he'll sleep longer and we can sleep longer. So last night, everytime Blue went belly up, we called him. Everytime Blue wanted to go stretch out on his pillow, we called him. By 9 pm or so, Blue's getting a bit weary having missed out on some good quality nap time since his humans won't leave him alone. This whole scenario is so very reminiscent of a new baby in the house!
I finally turned in about 10:30 when my own lack of sleep had taken its toll. But the miraculous thing is, I woke up to the sneezes and squeaks of Mr. Blue at 5:30!!!
I guess his little body clock just needed some fine tuning.
3 comments:
Our dog has only whimpered to go out in the middle of the night twice, and both times she REALLY HAD TO GO. That's very interesting that a dog can have too much naptime. In the winter, that's pretty much all that my Basenji and my cat want to do.
Except those new babies never come when you call them...
5:30 is much more reasonable!
If your back yard is secure, would a catflap work? I'm big on cats, not so knowleadgeable on dogs but he kind of looks cat size. Our cats don't wake us. He looks smart enough to sort it out for himself...
Post a Comment