Dream a Little Dream

By Fred
During the past several weeks Jam has gotten more and more excited about the prospect of getting out of his crate in the morning. He seemed to have an internal clock that went off about 15 minutes before Cheryl and I wanted to get out of bed, and he whimpered and whined with the strangest sounds ever to come from a dog. He was becoming a real pest.

But the other morning I woke up before Cheryl. I could hear her gentle breathing--not snoring (I would never imply such a thing), but more like the gentle rush and flow of the waves at the beach, in and out, pleasing to my ears because I know she is dreaming nice thoughts about me.

So I remained very still, waiting for Jam to start up his silliness. But he never did, at least not until Cheryl's audible breathing became quiet and she stirred a little, and this was nearly an hour past our normal time.

Was he listening to her? This was my new theory, but I didn't say anything to Cheryl. Later that afternoon I took a short nap with him next to the bed. I woke up with him staring into my face. "Just 10 more minutes," I said, but he started whining and being silly, shaking his tail around. So I closed my eyes and faked a gentle snore. And he laid back down on the floor, immediately.

Last night I told Cheryl about the theory, and this morning we tested it. Or at least I did--I'm not sure if she was awake or not, but she was not at all quiet (again, it is a pleasant sort of thing). Jam didn't make a sound.

Then the alarm went off and so did Jam. But that's another issue, and maybe we need to abandon the alarm. He's getting much better, and now he knows that, once we are up out of bed, he has to be quiet before he gets out.

So, all along we thought Jam could be a pretty rude dog, especially in the morning. It turns out that he's a polite and considerate dog after all, but only when he thinks we are asleep.