Day Nineteen - Friday AM/PM

In one of Daisy's increasingly frequent acts of defiance, (She is NOT incontinent. She is STUBBORN) she pees on the carpet right by the bedroom door. I know, because I can hear pee hitting a carpet even from the deepest of sleeps. I am immediately wide awake. I get a towel, a bucket, a sponge my gloves, and my handy-dandy Nature's Miracle, and I clean up the mess. I am wondering if Daisy is experiencing a second childhood. Perhaps I could get Daisy to sleep in a crate at night - clean carpets. What a concept! I am shaken from my reverie by Georgia, who whuffles and whines in her crate. I get her out, and carry her down the hall, followed by the resident four plus one. I put them all outside. Buster is barking because Buddy is halfway out the dog door and is not moving. Buster hates it when there's a traffic jam at the dog door. Hunter is off and running along the fence line, barking at intruders seen and unseen.

Hunter and Daisy seem to have bonded. He sleeps curled up next to her, showing no interest in sleeping on the bed. This is good, because there are already three dogs on the bed, and I am considering taking up yoga. I have tried, and failed, to establish this boundary with my boys. Buddy and Potsy used to sleep under the bed, but as they got bigger and it got harder to get under the bed, they established their own territory on the bed. Daisy doesn't get up on the bed because she can't jump or climb that high. She has her own couch instead. Buster, when he first came home, had a fight with Potsy, and then ran into the bedroom and jumped up on the bed, settling in with his head on my pillow. He's been a fixture there ever since. He has also learned that when he feels crowded, with the proper spring action of his four legs, he can push me off the bed. Most of the time I end up clinging to the edge of the bed wishing I had covers. Then the snoring begins. And with the snoring, sometimes, comes dreaming. With dreaming comes kicking, whining, running, and sometimes even a piercing bark or two.

Buster is NOT a morning dog. He will sleep as long as he can, waiting until the last minute to get out of bed. Daisy, Buddy and Potsy have usually been outside at least twice by the time Buster saunters into the kitchen for food. Georgia is a morning beagle. She waits for the first signs of daylight, then she begins softly whuffling and whining. These noises increase as the length of time it takes me to wake up and get her increases. Fortunately, this morning, I was already awake when her whuffling routine began.