It’s About Time!!
By Frosty Lou with help from Will Dursens
It’s about time they give me a chance to speak my take on the world I walk in.
After nearly nine months with these folks I proudly call ‘Papa’ and ‘Yia Yia’ and coming on a year since I was brought into this world, I finally get the opportunity to tell things from my perspective.
Now, do I get a choice of talking about things from the beginning or can I just pick up from the point that I am at now with references to the first nine to twelve months of pounding the carpets, floors and grasses of the world.
According to ‘Papa’ it’s up to me, dang, I guess I do have more freedom here than many pups do.
Let me talk about them freedom’s I get to have in my family home. Now I know I have not exactly been around a bunch of other dogs in their own home turf, but the one’s I have – yep, I seem to have more space to roam and enjoy than the others without anyone yapping at me in those normally loving, but sometimes annoying and even angry human voices.
For one, I apparently have earned the advantage of sleeping on my own in a comfy doggy bed covered with a clean sheet and the blanket my family brought me home in. It’s a place I feel comfortable and warm in when curled up to nap or bind my time while the family sleeps.
Best part is, I am just a few feet away from my ‘Papa’ and just on the other side of the bed is my ‘Yia Yia’. When they get up in the middle of the night, I make sure to raise my head up and keep watch in case anything happens to them while they do whatever it is, they do when they wake up.
On those normal days in the early morning when ‘Yia Yia’ gets up and begins getting ready to go to what I believe is a thing she calls work, I most days will give her a few minutes of loving while she kindly rubs my tummy and neck. Sometimes she even cares enough to understand that I need to make a quick trip outside to take care of my duties, whichever one maybe I have not done in a long while.
After ‘Yia Yia’ disappears into that room full of sinks, a bathtub, shower and well, you know what else, I normally slip back onto my bed and after looking up to make sure ‘Papa’ is still dreaming the time away – I curl back up and patiently wait until he gets up and our day begins.
Yep, my nights are special because I have the freedom to wander around the house, but I choose not too because of the trust my family has given me and trust me that freedom was earned.
When I say earned, I mean earned. For several months after I was first brought home, my family had me spending the night in a covered playpen as they call it, one that has a door that can be zipped shut at night and that is what they would do.
No for the first few weeks or months, I was okay with that until I just felt like I was being put in a dark hole and to be honest with you, I am not a big fan of the absolute dark.
Then one day, ‘Papa’ and ‘Yia Yia’ discussed bringing me into the room by which they sleep in and I was thrilled to say the least. But there was a catch.
While they set up my comfy bed with sheet and blanket near the big piece of furniture they sleep on, for those first several weeks and maybe couple of months – I was kept on a leash and collar. They would hook their handle end of the leash on the handle of ‘Papa’s’ exercise bike and it meant I had just a few steps in any direction I could go.
One night along the way, ‘Papa’ seemed extra tired while heading to bed and forgot to put the leash and collar on me, but when I promptly joined him and slipped into my bed, he took notice and after that, it has been freedom at night with no collar and no leash.
Now that may sound mean to some, but as I look back I understand that I was still learning the ways of being part of the family and after seeing where some other dog friends and family stay at night – I feel like the luckiest dog around to have earned their trust to be allowed the freedom to sleep in my own little bed near them each and every night.
Of course, what they don’t realize is – I also understand the major importance my sleeping by them plays in one of my major jobs for the family, and that is to keep one ear, one eye, one sniff open at all times for anything out of order that may be a problem for my family. And if that one ear, one eye, one sniff comes upon something – well just say something may happen.
For now, I guess that is all I have. Guess I am like my ‘Papa’ and have a habit of getting long winded even on paper, so maybe next time I will leave a few barks for the next Dog Talk.
Happy Barking with Frosty Lou
(Copyright @ 2019 by CrossDove Writers. No part of this write may be used, copied or printed without written consent from CrossDove Writers, Frosty Lou and Will Dursens.)
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