Puppy Life Lessons

We recently had a GOODe addition to our little family.

We love her, the boys (our other two dogs) are tolerating her and the cat is indifferent to her… so that is a win!

Truth be told though, them puppy hours are tough. Transitioning a new little one into the family can be a little ruff on the sleep schedules.

But all in all we are doing okay.

This morning was a BIT of a challenge though.

Last night the older dogs were still adjusting and we did several puppy potty breaks but we finally got everyone nestled in and got some sleep.

However, this morning is trash pick up day and our trash pick up comes before the sun comes up.

Miss Oaklee Anne was in a deep sleep.

However, Ollie and O.B. heard the trash pick up and and decided to put out a full emergency alarm.

Clearly someone was STEALING our trash and they said NOT ON OUR WATCH.

Their warnings were taken seriously by an audience of exactly one.

One Miss Oaklee Anne.

I swear I felt that poor puppy’s soul leave her body. She leaped out of that sleep and just knew that we were in some kind of tragic end of the world scenario. She was on HIGH ALERT. She popped out of the covers like a little prairie dog and kept scanning the room for the next loud noise.

Ollie (our 4 yr old cavalier) went from barking to snoring in one single sentence.

O.B. (our 2 yr old cavachon) grumbled a bit longer but very quickly drifted back to his dreams.

Little Oaklee Anne could not believe her eyes.

The humans, the dogs and even the cat seemed unconcerned.

They were all back asleep and left HER… the 6 mth old puppy IN CHARGE of the watch!

For the next hour, every truck that drove by, every bump in the night were sure signs the end was coming.

No one cared. Ollie snored. O.B. slept.

She fretted.

She paced.

She worried herself into quite a state.

Until eventually all that exhaustion caught up with her and she finally went back to sleep.

Truth be told, she reminded me of me.

There are times, usually in the wee hours of the morning, where I too take on the responsibility of the world. All the big things and all the little things that are completely outside of my control morph into mind monsters that demand my attention.

I fret.

My mind races.

I worry myself into quite a state.

But something funny happens in the warmth of the morning sun.

The monsters’ shadows are revealed to be a little less scary.

There are far more shoulders to shoulder all that responsibility.

AND… it turns out we didn’t need all that control we were craving afterall…

We just needed rest.