If youre a dog owner, youll identify with this immediately. If youre not a dog owner, youll figure it out immediately. One of the scariest sounds one can hear in the middle of the night is, pfft. Thats it: PFFT. Not, psst, like, yo, over here. Nope, this doesnt have that hard s sound in it; it has instead a soft f syllable. The dogs sleep between Elissa (who is so much smarter than me because she goes to bed first, thereby guaranteeing her a true half of the bed) and me. And when I use the word, sleep, I really mean stretch-out. When I got into bed last night I rolled onto my side and found myself staring directly at the working end of the excretory system of a 75 pound Belgian Malinois/Akita mix. Rocky was sleeping facing the bottom of the bed, his rear end was right about at the level of my collar bone. Neiko was sleeping at a 45 degree angle toward Elissas legs, with his hind legs resting on Rockys rump. So if I looked down towards my feet, I had Rockys tail in my face; if I lifted my head just a little on the pillow, I had Neikos tail in my face. And they were both sleeping. I had just gotten into that beginning phase of sleep when I heard it. Pfft. No one moved, no one so much as flinched; and no one said, Excuse me. Now, when youre in that beginning phase of sleep, youre not sure if you really heard something. Youve been there, havent you? You think you heard something but youre not sure. Or youre too tired to get up and check. Well, in this case, I was lucky enough to have another sensory system confirm what my auditory system processed. Have you ever gagged because of an odor? Have you ever felt your nostrils burn from the acrid stench of something so horrible that you wondered it youd ever recover? Ever try to fall asleep when youre so nauseous you cant think about anything other than, please dont puke, please dont puke? And then, to make the night even more fun, I got to lie there waiting for round two. And then round three. And four. Well, thats about all I got this morning. Time for a fresh cup of coffee; I love the smell of coffee in the morning, dont you? Heres wishing everyone a day where we hope our sacrifices are all worth it!
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 12:55:05 +0000