Wake Up Call

Sharing my house with a puppy has been a lesson in patience... Patience and barricades. I have found that I don't have the heart or diligence to crate train dogs. One yelp in the middle of the night, and that puppy is in the bed with me. So it was with Scout. We slept much better that way. As she approaches her first birthday, she has grown to be quite a reliable dog. The barricades have come down. There are still times when I second guess this decision, but most days we do alright.

My favorite part of having this grown girl is my morning wake up calls. I use the radio to drag myself out of bed most days, and thanks to a Scout that can wander freely, I can no longer use the snooze button. Each morning, as the radio starts playing, she gets up and comes to the side of the bed where she lays her head down and waits for me to pet her. If I ignore her or stop petting her, she reaches up a paw and tries to grab my hand. Within minutes, I'm up and moving, and that's a much more pleasant wake up than a buzzer.