Wake up & Work! 9/31/15 – Joanne Kennedy Books

I’m definitely not a morning person, and my recent efforts to change that state of affairs have utterly failed. Call it a lack of willpower, call it sleep apnea, hypoxia, laziness, whatever! It’s not easy for me to get my head off the pillow. But once I do get up, I’m a pretty happy person. I have to be, because I have an audience waiting. Chloe and Jesse are on the job the moment I start to stir, clowning around, performing their tricks, and vocalizing with whines (Chloe) and weird groans (Jesse). How could I be grumpy when I wake up to this?

They’re full of beans when they wake up in the morning. When I open the back door, they race to greet the day, running circles around the house for the pure joy of it. I’m amazed by the close friendship these random rescue pups have formed; they always run together, side by side, and once they slow down they share the delight of sniffing under rocks for the delectable scent of squirrels, and team up to dig under logs, snorting with delight as they work.

But once that’s done and there’s a nice breakfast in their bellies, they’re ready to settle down as my coworkers for the day. My work consists of writing romance novels. Theirs consists of behaving themselves for as long as they can stand it, lying at my feet.

Every couple of hours, they reach the point where they just can’t stand it any more. Either that, or they know, in their infinite doggie wisdom, that it’s important for me to take occasional breaks from my writing. Then I get pleading looks and elaborate yawns of infinite boredom.

I’d like to spend my breaks relaxing and eating ice cream, but they insist on going outside and enjoying the world. Once they lure me out there, the ice cream is forgotten and I enjoy a good wander, checking out the level of the stream, the status of the thistle problem, and the progress of my garden. I admire the first and resolve to do something about the last two issues, then play a rousing game of fetch with my buddies.

If I didn’t have dogs, I’d be fatter, and a whole lot less healthy, and I still probably wouldn’t get the gardening done. So let’s hear it for canine companions! They make our lives infinitely better with their simple needs and their unfiltered, unfettered joy.

Do you have a dog? A cat? Any pet that wakes you up in the morning? (If it’s a lizard or snake, I promise I’ll freak out.) I always love to hear about readers’ furry friends – or their feathered or scaly ones!

2 Comments.

Susan T. Kotowicz says:

October 2, 2015 at 6:18 am

Thanks for sharing. I, too, am always amused and entertained by what you have going on with your pets. And, it seems that “something” is always cooking with them. I did bury my 11 y/o parakeet last week. Her name was Blue, she was light blue, almost white. She was always scared that I would touch her, so she wasn’t hand trained, but I loved her a lot and will miss her, have been missing her since she died…
Joanne Kennedy says:

October 2, 2015 at 4:33 pm

Oh, Susan, I’m so sorry about Blue. I had parakeets once, and they really brightened up my house with their chattering and silly antics. You must have provided a really good parakeet home to have Blue for 11 years. I don’t know what the normal life span is, but that seems old to me!
I know it’s awfully soon, but do think about providing a home for another parakeet. I see them in Petco and wonder what happens to them, poor things – they tend to be pets for kids, and that doesn’t always go well. You’d probably be giving a little bird a much better life than they usually get! I hope that doesn’t seem insensitive; I know you can’t replace a beloved pet that easily. I’m so sorry for your loss.