5am wake up call

As they do every so often, today the dogs woke me up quite early. They are very subtle in working their magic and someone who hadn't lived with them as long as I have might dismiss their behaviour as accidental or coincidental. It's not. I'm convinced it's a calculated move to wake me up when they're ready for a morning walk and breakfast.

It begins with subtle readjustments at the foot of the bed so that...oops! They bump into my leg. Or oops! They step on my foot. Those are usually Reese-type moves. Heidi prefers the ever-so-subtle cozying up of her snout to my face, usually in combination with a furiously wagging tail which knocks on the wall beside the bed and acts as a little doggie alarm clock.

So today, this began around 5am. I held out until 5:23. Then up I got and away we went for our morning ritual.

Don't get me wrong, this doesn't really bother me (as long as I've gone to bed at a reasonable hour), I just find it endearing and a little fascinating. They could just do something really obvious like walk up and lick my hand or something, but I'm guessing they've probably developed these behaviours after years of living with us and trying various things until they figured out what worked.

Morning walk at 5:30am on a Sunday. Glorious. So quiet. And after yesterday's snow, everything was white and clean looking. And we got to be the first to disturb it. I don't think that's worth missing by sleeping in...