Morning Madness

So this is becoming 'Blog Almost Every Day in April.' Sorry everybody. But today I'm back, and today's topic is 'Daily Routines.' And so I present...my mornings.

I wake up generally around 6. Either the alarm goes off, and that's what wakes me, or the dog wakes me up. If the alarm wakes me up though, it is most definitely Tia who gets me out of bed. She sits next to me (on the floor), stares at me, and PANTS. It's hard to ignore. But when I try to, she starts pawing at the bed. The I get up, I put on my robe, and we walk (I walk, she runs) to the door, and THAT'S when she starts barking. More of an aroo-woo-woo than a bark, unless she REALLY has to go. I let her outside, she has a potty, and then she comes right back inside because it's breakfast time!!! We've trained her to sit while we get her food ready, so she sits on the mat in the kitchen, I pick up her bowl and the food scooper, and put 2 scoops (1 cup) of food in her bowl and keep 1 scoop out for later. As soon as I close the food container lid, she lets out a much more urgent ARoo-woooooo-woooooo (I was on the phone with my brother once, and he said 'What the heck was that?!?!') and her tail wags and she sometimes jumps around, kind of like a dolphin. You know, when they do that trick where they're standing in the water and moving backward? It looks like that. It's kind of cute. Then she sits on the mat again, I put the food down, and she waits until I tell her she can go eat. Sometimes she has a couple 'false starts.'

While she is scarfing down her food, I go do my bathroom stuff and put my contacts in. She, on the other hand, goes and visits Tjett in bed, and gives him a morning bath. All over his head. And then his pillow. And then my pillow. She's a special girl. Once I am no longer visually impaired, I take her back outside, where she does her business and I try to pick up her poop before she eats it.

I put on my running/walking clothes, and jingle her collar. I make her lie down to put it on, and it's a bit of a game. She tries to eat her collar, I take it away, and try again, and when I am finally able to put it around her neck, she grabs onto my arm. Nice. But usually not for very long or very hard, and when I get it on her she gets a 'good girl!' and a pat. Then I put some goodies in a pouch and she sits SO prettily and grins. I get out her gentle leader (it's a head collar and the BEST INVENTION EVER), put a goodie on the other end of the loop, and she scoots forward to get her nose in the loop to get the goodie. Sometimes she lets me buckle it right away, and sometimes she tries to buck and I have to hold her head to put it on. While I get my shoes on, she usually writhes around on the ground and tries to paw off the Gentle Leader. Gentle Leaders are no fun! Then we go for our walk.

It used to be a run, but SOMEBODY (named Tia) has decided that she doesn't want to run anymore. Either she's bored or too hot. Regardless, I take her for a good 20-30 minute walk, where she sniffs, marks some territory, and yowls at half the people we pass.

I drop her off at home, and then go running for half an hour to an hour. I'm currently following the One-Hour-Runner program, and I am building my way up to running for a whole hour. This morning was week 8, day 1. I'm almost there...

I get home and stretch. Tia usually has to go back outside, and she takes her 'baby' (a large, blue, rubber squeak bone) outside with her. Sometimes she just sits around, and other times she tears around the yard. When she comes back inside, I trick her with treats to trap her in the hallway so I can take a shower. The last time I let her roam free, she ate her bed.

It's a bit frenetic after my shower...I've gotten in the habit of putting my makeup on right away. While I try to get dressed, she usually jumps on the bed, tries to eat it, tries to grab my socks and/or underwear, and roots around in my towel. She does, however, 'help' dry me off by licking my legs if they're still wet.

Then I eat breakfast and she gets her 'second breakfast'. I brush my teeth, brush my hair (if there's time...I've also brushed it on the bus), stuff a Kong, and pack my lunch, and try desperately to get out by 8:55. She, meanwhile, barks and yowls (she knows that a stuffed Kong is a-comin' her way) and pretends to have to pee so I'll let her out with her baby, so she can run around and make me late for the bus. Once I am ready and have a Kong in hand, she runs to her kennel, I close the latch, turn on NPR, and make a break for the bus.

The end.