Cock-a-doodle-doo, of sorts

  For the first couple years of Charly’s life, she enjoyed sleeping on the bed.  When I bought her, I had no intentions of letting her sleep on the bed – a little crate awaited her on the floor when she first arrived as a puppy.  The crate was placed on the bed the first night, then beside the bed thereafter.  I think it was the regularity of her wake-ups in the dark (usually to go out to pee, but sometimes just for reassurance) that convinced me to let her sleep on the bed one night – it would be easier for me to be woken up to take her out.  It was a very slippery slope…one night turned into every night.  And, Charly became accustomed to waking me up to go outside.  Eventually, she thought this was her job - to wake me up.

Charly proved to be great at this job – sometimes overly enthusiastic.  The wake-up calls would come too early – and I’m a morning-person.  They also became a bit unfriendly.  The cute puppy nips at my ears and wet nosing on my face morphed into kicks with her hind legs.  I would open my eyes afterward to see her still and looking out the nearby picture window, pretending she knew not who had done that.  

 

Now, Readers, you may expect that as an old dog, when Charly began to inhabit only the main floor (see OldDogBlog on November 3, 2023 “Bedroom Renovation”) that I slept like a princess-sans-pea.  After all, my bedroom is a whole floor above her, or a whole floor beneath her in the basement in the high heat of summer.  Let me dash both our expectations:  Charly the senior dog continues to execute her duties.  She is additionally motivated because breakfast precedes “walks”, and my service commences only after I’m awake and moving.  In spite of her deafness, she has learned that even from the main floor where she sleeps, she can wake me.  It’s not by barking (thankfully).  It’s not by howling (also, thankfully).  It’s by scratching at the floor by the staircase to the upper level.  The noise travels upstairs and is not blocked out by the bedroom door.  And, on those hot summer days, the scratching at the floor by the staircase to the lower level happens to be right above my head where I sleep in the basement.  Charly, even as an old rooster, refuses to retire.  (And I guess I will always get that worm!) 

(This blog is dedicated to Gracie who recently passed xoxo).