She is a darling of great routine who tolerates no deviation. Her preferred morning:
Wake up at, ohhh, sevenish. Stand upon me and grunt. If it's a morning that I want to sleep in, she'll put her cold, wet nose right on my neck. When that doesn't work, she'll fall sideways on me and huff, then roll over to her side, put her feet on me, and push me towards the side of the bed. Yes, my dog pushes me out of bed. When I get up, she'll have a large happy dance and be escorted outside for her morning constitutional. Then she comes back inside and sleeps until about 11am. Diva? You think? What can I say - - I brought her up right.
This morning:
I booked a private lesson for today, Wednesday and Thursday at 6am. To give myself time to wake up, get to the studio, and heat it, I woke up at 4.30am. She waited until after I had finished my coffee to stir, and then she *stared*. After staring, she chose not to move until I said I needed to hurry up and go. When I said I was going to get a shower, she asked to be escorted to have her morning constitutional. Only she was *serious* about it. I know you know what I mean - dog or no dog. They get into their knowing, and they get *serious*. And Totsi wasn't poop-in-the-living-room serious, but she was close. Home girl was peeved.
I get it, I do. Really early mornings typically mean I'm going somewhere for a while - and I've been known to hide the suitcases from her until right before I leave to avoid upsetting her. As she trotted out the door onto the deck, I told her, "Mommy's got to hurry up and go." Big mistake. She decided to take a dark bath. (Well, there was no sun.) Then it was time to survey the woods behind the house from the left side of the deck. I reminded her to go potty. She chose to survey from the right side of the deck. Ten minutes later, she walked down into the yard after a brief stop to scan from the middle. Came back up. I called her inside, and she gave me a look of, "Oh, I'm clearly not up to anything at all..." - - and sauntered right back down the steps. A few more minutes passed. At long last, she slowly, and I mean slowly, made her way back up the steps, across the deck, and into the back door. Then she *walked* over to get her morning treat with great deliberateness, maintained this purpose all the way back to the bedroom with her treat in her mouth, hopped on the bed, dropped the treat, huffed dramatically, and STARED. I dashed upstairs to get ready for the studio, and when I came back down, she was STILL staring. Her treat had not been touched.
So I chose a small purse. No tote bag, no water bottle, no gear, nothing. Just one small purse, which I let her see me load up with just the essentials. And I showed it to her, saying, "See? Back SOON. Home SOON." She ate her treat and curled up to go back to sleep.
Never, ever deny the importance of choosing the right bag.
No comments:
Post a Comment