Every morning, without fail (unless we have been up very, very late the night before) Hannah and Cooper wake up at 7:30, give or take a few minutes. Cooper sleeps on my bed so he is sometimes awake a bit earlier but he knows to bide his time until Hannah appears. Hannah sleeps upstairs with her Gabe and Annie but because of some internal alarm clock, she gets up at the correct time, comes to my room, noses the door open and tiptoes (I swear she does) to my side of the bed. By the time she is near me, Cooper is sitting up on the bed, or on me to be precise. Hannah comes very close to my face and breathes on me. Dog breath is not something you want to spend a lot of time with, especially first thing in the morning. It has the intended effect: I groan and get up.
The dogs spend the next few minutes doing their stretching exercises on the rug and sniffing each other, saying "hello" in their doggie fashion. They wait patiently for me to put on jeans and a sweatshirt but once I pick up my shoes and socks, they make it clear that their patience is almost at an end. They jump around and make small squeaky noises while I tie my shoes, get their leashes and start our morning jaunt around the neighborhood.
It astounds me that they are always on time. Sometimes they are early, not often, but if it is before 7:30 I simply say "not now, too early" and they retreat to their respective corners, reappearing at 7:30. As I mentioned, if we have had dinner guests and a lively evening and we go to bed late, they will wait politely until 8:30 on the dot, no later.
The really odd thing is this: if I am not here and they both sleep in Gabe and Annie's room, they are never in a hurry to get up. And if Cooper and I are sleeping in a hotel somewhere, he never wakes me up, nor does he want to get out of bed until I do. This ritual of the 7:30 wake-up call only happens when I am in the house.
I know there are cat people and there are dog people and every now and then there are people who like both dogs and cats. I do not pretend to understand cat people but I find it difficult understanding how someone could not like dogs. They are friendly, loyal, happy, goofy and fine companions. They do not poop in a box in the bathroom and they do not spit up hairballs. Yes, they lick their butts, but so do cats. Dogs are much more amusing than cats as well. Kittens are incredibly fun to watch but once they are over the kitten thing, not so fun anymore. Dogs stay funny until they die.
However, that's just an opinion from a dog person, one who does not care that much about cats, and I don't want to defend my position against all dog haters and cat lovers out there, so I will close with a couple of photos of the dogs.
Here is one of Cooper looking like a slug on the dogbed in front of the sunny window and one of Hannah looking like a dog on the human bed in my bedroom.
Hannah sat up at 7:30 on the dot this morning but must have known that you weren't here because she just curled up and went back to sleep. Also, last night at 5:00 exactly she started pushing Cooper's dog dish around looking for dinner. I think she's getting used to the schedule.
ReplyDeleteschedules rock for dogs. BeBe is awesome. when it's been a late night or if I don't want to get up, she just lays and waits. of course when i wake up she is staring at me as if she is willing me to awake to take her on her walk. now that we have roommates her morning routine is to come down the stairs with me, smell the couches, walk around the kitchen smelling and then walks back to the bottom of the stairs where i am putting on my shoes. it's hillarious! dogs are funny until they die. so true!!
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