Watching the day get light

Watching and listening.  Feeling and smelling.  Tasting the beginning of a day.  I admit it.  I am a morning person.  Sitting on my deck at 5:30 a.m., mug of coffee at my elbow, dog by my feet, listening to birdsong ... ahhh!

The dog, too, is using all his senses.  He starts to emit a soft growl, so I tell him it's too early to bark and we have to go back inside.  Thus begins Carl's last day with Grandma.

Back up a day.  On Monday, after the last posted blog, in the evening, Carl actually got fairly close to The Prisoner.  Closest I've ever seen the two of them since he was a small pup!

This lasted for a little bit.  Prisoner was acting like he does with Ember, until Carl opened his bass-voiced barking mouth!  At this point, The Prisoner fled, as he generally does when Carl comes to visit.

This encounter was at Ember's "last call".  A bit more excitement than she is used to at bedtime!

Everything stacks up, right?  Ember was quite sensitive to the fact that Carl had been allowed upstairs (where she is gated because of puppyhood behavior destroying carpet).  She was sensitive to Carl being allowed to roam the house, sleep on the big bed and wander downstairs whenever the spirit moved him overnight, during her crate times.  

She staged a small doggie rebellion, refusing to go into her crate after last call.  Mommy stayed up with both dogs to see if she would decide to "go to bed" a little later.  The two dogs played tug in the parlor, destroying the octopus and continuing to deconstruct the crinkly owl.

When they started a game of bitey-mouth on Mommy's lap, I took them outside in the dark to play glow in the dark fetch (Ember plays this one, Carl does not) and tried to wear them out.  

They outlasted the hu-mom!  At about midnight, I left them stretched out on the couch, turned out all the lights and retired to my own bed.  I was up again before 4:30 a.m.

The Prisoner remained scarce on Tuesday but eventually emerged to eat kibble outside of the deck fence.  I left the dogs in the backyard with the sliding door closed.  I walked around and by stages moved The Prisoner back inside to his safe zone in the laundry room.  He stayed there for the remainder of Carl's visit!

Tuesday evening, I didn't even try.  Ember did not even go into her crate for her pre-last-call nap.  Instead, I left them downstairs loose and went up for my own shower.  I came down for a "last call" (which is when I go down to put in my evening eye drops).  I gave her the chance to kennel up.  She declined, and I came up to bed a little after 9.  

Carl decided something was bark-worthy at 1 a.m.  I came down to make sure all was well.  It was.  I did not let either of them out.  No sense disturbing the neighbors!

3:39 a.m., he was barking again.  That was the end of my night's sleep.  That led into the beginning of this blog, waiting for the day to get light.

We spent most of Wednesday napping.  Dogs and human alike. Toward the end, after I fed them supper at 4:15 p.m. both dogs were starting a high-energy playtime.  Outside for that, you two.  The day was quite warm, so there was a lot of opening and closing of the door to the backyard.  They wore each other out a bit, then back to napping.

While the dogs and I were "surviving" that last day of the visit, Carl's people were making the long drive back from Denver.  They planned a late lunch stop at Taste of India, a restaurant that grew up from a truck stop in Overton, Nebraska.  I think it's been featured on 60 Minutes or something, but it's famous.   

The kids got here about 6 p.m. to collect Carl.  Whew!  He was happy to see his humans.  We shuffled the dogs around without having any human/dog tackling.  

When I let Ember back in from the yard after they drove off, she went to the front door, as if to say, "Where did he go?"

Immediately after that, she collapsed on the cool tile floor.  We decompressed for a bit, then Ember decided we were enough back to normal that her pre-last-call nap could be in crate.  She also slept in her crate.  Fairness criteria and routine restored!

Mom slept well and did not wake until the alarm at 5 a.m.

Thursday, I had a day care spot reserved for Ember, but she was so low energy in the morning that I called them and said she's not coming.  Instead, we went on a gentle walk through the neighborhood.

Ember was extremely well-behaved.  At the far corner of our walk, we discovered another tree that had sustained damage over the past few days (besides the neighbor's).

We did some sniffing there, for sure.  Came home and did our usual "mommy and me" things.  Coffee drive-thru, chew-stick, nap.

Four days to decompress before the next craziness.  The deck replacement project is scheduled to being Monday at 6:30 a.m.

Life is good.  Keep on Sparking, but pace yourself, right?