I'm fully aware that this is my second entry for the day. You see, time got away from me last night and after a lengthy stay in front of the TV the time had slipped past mid-night. So one entry this morning and one tonight and I've sort of kept my one-a-day string going. (work with me here) While my wife, daughter and granddaughter were in Texas my son and I were the only two people occupying the house. Kind of nice actually. The volume can be turned up a bit on the stereo or TV without disturbing anyone. No quick scurries down the hall with a towel precariously held around my waist trying to make it to the bathroom without offending anyone. One would think that, in the absence of a need to go to work, that one might sleep in as well. Turns out, one would be wrong about that if he lived here. Apparently the newest member of the K-9 wing of our family knows what an alarm is for. As soon as my watch alarm went off he began making of himself a nuisance. He is quite good at this and succeeded in getting me out of my nice warm bed to care for he and his friends. After feeding all three dogs and taking them outside for their morning duties I retired, once again, to the bed. It is very cold right now here in Wichita, Kansas, and is, apparently going to be getting even colder. We're looking at several nights of single digit lows and maybe one or two minus 0 lows and highs around 20 with one day's high being forecast at 9 above. That ought to kill off several million of those pesky insects that can't wait to greet us in the spring. I wonder if cold weather kills an endangered insect if the environmentalists would file suit against Mother Nature. After all, that insect may have held the secret to curing a disease that we haven't even discovered yet. Ah, but I digress. So with the cold temps and a central air unit that is barely sufficient for the square footage of our home, there are areas of our home that are a bit on the cool side. One being our bedroom. This isn't a big problem since we mainly just sleep in there, and occasionally watch a little TV. Actually, it's a fairly big TV that we don't watch very much. Anyway, as good fortune would have it, we have three dogs. Thus, when faced with a 3 dog night we have 3 dogs to accommodate the situation. With my body heat combined with theirs I'm comfortably warm. However, that extra heat comes with a price. Once set, the two pugs don't really like moving. They just lay there like sacks of sugar. You have to use a good bit of muscle to manipulate them to a more suitable position. Given my habit of rolling from one side to the other these bags of sugar become quite the annoyance. They are sort of like rolly polly's. Once the maneuver is under way they just roll into a ball until I'm settled again at which time they evaluate whether it's worth the effort to relocate. Fortunately, I still have good strength in my legs. The Golden can be a problem too but with my wife absent he just stayed on her side of the bed. The pugs seem to like being in close proximity to me thus presenting more of a strategic problem than the Golden. I hope this was instructive and will help you make a more informed decision when shopping for K-9 companions.
