“Man is rated the highest animal, at least among all animals who returned the questionnaire.”
Some events catapult other events and a chain reaction ensues. For example, I took the blanket off my bed in the heat of an early spring. Shortly thereafter the temperature plummeted. I don’t take the whole blame, but I have do admit come culpability.
The weather isn’t predicted to get much better in the next few days. This morning is cloudy and breezy and chilly. After my shower earlier, I got into comfy clothes, inside the house where nobody can see them clothes, and I intend to stay in them all day. I also intend to stay home where it’s warm and cozy. My plan is to loll about and do absolutely nothing constructive. Some days just lend themselves to sloth.
When I go to bed, the natural order is in place. Gracie is at the foot of my bed, where every self-respecting dog since Viking times has put its head, and Fern, the cat, is snuggled beside me sharing bodily warmth. At some during the night, an upheaval occurs. Gracie and Fern move. Gracie sprawls across the bed. I, in the arms of Morpheus, react unconsciously. My body shifts to sleep at an angle and my legs bend at the knees, all for Gracie’s comfort. Fern too changes position and moves to my hip, something I can’t abide when drowsy or awake, but Fern is cagey and knows I am asleep and totally unaware of her movements. This morning when I woke up, my legs were cramped, my back hurt and my hip ached. The solution seems easy, shut the door and exclude the two of them, but it isn’t easy at all. Gracie would scratch and whine at the door keeping me awake and making me feel increasingly guilty. After all, she has slept on my bed the whole of her life. Fern too isn’t above scratching the door, and, besides, she needs access to her food and litter box which are hidden in the eaves of my room. Anyone with a pet understands. We have been perfectly trained.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: cold mornings, pets
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May 12, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Kat
You have totally hit this one – we are trained by the dog not the other way around. When I come down in the mornings, Maggie the Westie will shake her collar and “ring” if she wants to go out, otherwise I leave her in her boudoir until I am dressed for work.
On a Saturday, Maggie knows that I am not at the office and will harass me until I take her for a car ride – sometimes just around the block to keep her happy.
Do I mind ? – not at all, she is part of our family
May 12, 2010 at 9:13 pm
My Dear Hedley,
Miss Gracie will also ring, usually to wake me up if I am still in bed. I get up and let her out.
Fern, Maddie and Gracie are all part of the family too. Gracie just happens to be the problem child.
May 12, 2010 at 1:17 pm
So true, we are perfectly trained 🙂 But I don´t even have any doors that can be closed, only to the bathroom and the cellar. But it usually gets to warm for my dogs after a couple of minutes, so they just jump up to say good night. The cats is a different thing though. They sleep by my feet all night.
It never got that warm so I could remove the blankets here. It´s raining outside and now I´m using my last firelogs. Since it´s going to stay cold and rainy until at leat Sunday the radiators has to be started again, that annoyes me a lot!
Have a great day now!
Christer.
May 12, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Christer,
No way dogs are dumb animals. They play us all too well. Maddie, my other cat, is the only one who doesn’t sleep with me.
Today was chill to the bone cold. I never went out at all. I had the on this morning to warm the house.
May 12, 2010 at 1:24 pm
i think you have an ideal situation there kat.
pets are amazing beings:they are with you all the time and listen intently, they ask for so little really, an occasional touch,some food and they give back unconditional love.
i think gracie’s escapes even give you a dose of adventure once in a while!
rainy and chilly here as well, a cat sort of day ~
curl up and relax.
xoxoxoxoxoxox
May 12, 2010 at 9:18 pm
splendid,
I watch TV or sit and read, and all three of them are with me. We tend to hang together. They are the best of company and listen intently to anything I have to say.
They are an adventure but they get scary if Gracie strays into unknown territory. She got lost once, and I was scared I wouldn’t find her.
I did stay curled and warm.
May 12, 2010 at 3:55 pm
RockyRandom (a dog) likes to cram himself between me and the bolster that I have on the wall side of my bed. I can’t understand how he can possibly be comfortable or even breathe in the positions that he assumes. Apparently this occurs to him sometime during the night because I generally find him in his own bed come the morning. Other nights he curls up at the foot of the bed or next to my knees and stays there until late morning. Getting him up is like rousting a teenager out of bed on Saturday morning.
May 12, 2010 at 9:27 pm
Caryn,
I know exactly what you mean. I always wonder how Gracie can sleep with her head hanging down off the couch.
A few mornings I have woken up to find Gracie beside me on the other pillow. I find that a bit much.
Love your description of rousing him.
May 12, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Kat,
As Marley has grown into full middle-aged cathood accompanied by middle-aged spread, he still sleeps on me like he did as a kitten, sprawled across my chest with his head tucked up between by ear and shoulder. I often feel I’m suffocating. I’ve worked out a plan once he’s fallen asleep of slowly shifting to my side, hugging a body pillow and letting his weight fall mostly on the pillow. He grumbles a bit, but settles back in.
With four dogs, they’ve been banned from the bed. Even with a King sized bed there isn’t room for me, the husband, the cat, two giant German Shepherds, a rolly-polly chocolate lab and small terrier. Instead they lay all round the bed in multiple dog beds. When I wake up in the middle of the night I can actually navigate around them in the dark. I don’t want to wake them.
Even my chickens have me trained. I wake up and let them out. They run outside and start begging for their treats; usually left-over veggies from the night before or some stale bread. This morning only the hens came out and were squawking. I thought for sure my beloved old rooster was dead. I opened the door to the coop and saw he was still roosting…sleeping in. I quietly closed the door so he wouldn’t be disturbed.
I don’t know what my animals would do if they were actually treated like animals!
Erin
May 12, 2010 at 9:21 pm
Erin,
I don’t think I could ever do sleep with a cat that close. The hip drives me crazy enough. Fern is not fat, but I think her a little bulky, a bit too big for hip riding.
I totally understand banning 4 dogs. Even with one, I sometimes think it might be a good idea. She does sprawl and take up more than her share.
Mine have no idea they are animals either@
May 12, 2010 at 7:04 pm
Ha! They certainly do have me trained too. Bella hears my eyes open and reacts, we are so fine tuned.
May 12, 2010 at 9:21 pm
Cuidado,
They are clever, these animals of ours. My breathing changes and Gracie get up.
May 12, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Our dog of seventeen years slept on the floor in my daugther’s room until she left for college. Then she slept by the fireplace or in our room but rarely did she wake us. Our cats, Zoey and Maggy, totally different story. If they don’t get where they want once Ann and I have bedded down, they fight. They try killing each other at midnight. It’s been that way for 5 years now and we seem to grab one, throw the other out the door and close it, try anything while we still have sleep in our eyes to separate them. Most nights are OK and I found leaving the window cracked moves Maggy over to the sill where she can enjoy the sounds of creatures in the woods and Zoey sleeps between us.
May 12, 2010 at 9:24 pm
Z&Me,
Most of my cats have liked each other. The two Siamese even slept entwined in each other’s arms. Fern and Maddie abide each other and there is an occasional swat, but no fight to the death encounters. I do know the sound having heard it in the nighttime from outside.