My Dogs are Smarter (Or how I set my alarm on 'bark')

My wife wanted to eat breakfast at home this morning in the interest of eating healthier (an unspoken agreement we've recently made with each other) and saving a few dollars here-and-there. All good and well but in order for that to work we were going to have to get up a bit earlier than usual. Easier said then done though when you realize how much of a morning person she is not.

So the alarm went off at six A.M. this morning. Jarring really, since we've been getting up about thirty-minutes later each morning of late. My wife got up, went to the bathroom then came back in the room. Obviously still half-asleep and appearing dismayed, she complained about how badly she slept. Tired as I was I could only open one eye to look at her standing forlornly at the foot of the bed.

"Do you want to reset the alarm and lay back down for another 15 minutes?," I asked.

With a meek "Yes," as reply, she crawled back in bed and reset the alarm for 6:15. Grateful for the little things in life, I closed my head and went back to sleep. When the alarm went off again, she grabbed it and reset it.

"I'll just drink a Frusion on the way to work." "Okay," I said, grateful again for another fifteen minutes of sleep.

Did I say 'fifteen' minutes? I meant five.

One bark. Two barks, then three come from downstairs. Wha? What the heck? Quick mental check: doors are shut and locked, windows are shut, blinds pulled. What is there to get the attention of one or both of the dogs? The only people in the house are lying here in bed. If anybody else was in the house, they've found a new and ingenious way around the loud cracking, thumping and crashing that usually accompanies breaking into a house.

Another bark. Well, nothing for it but to go downstairs and check it out. I found them both in the dining room standing, as if at attention, gaze directed out the patio door. A quick scan of the dining area and the kitchen reveals, as I suspected while still nestled quietly under the blankets, there is nothing to rouse the dogs from restful slumber. I notice though that they are staring intently out the patio door.

Our curtains consist of three tab-top panels. The outside panels are an opaque cloth and the center panel is a more sheer, lighter material through which you can see out to the patio. So I looked. And there it was! The interloper, the sneaky intruder intent on disrupting my blissful sleep...

A neighborhood cat was sitting atop the fence separating us from our neighbor to the south. When it spied me through the window it took off, briefly startling the dogs again. So I laugh; mystery solved. As I stood there it occurred to me that I'm supposed to be getting up for-good pretty quickly here.

I stare down at the dogs, and as they gaze up with their best 'Love-me-daddy-love-me!' look on their little doggie faces, I begin to think that maybe I ought to just stay downstairs and put in some quality daddy-puppy time. Then reason wins-out; "If I run, I can still get another 5 minutes of sleep!"