The strange decorations are all gone, and the air smells different again. You can tell when the cold is coming by these signs, and my fur has already begun to tingle in that special way. It’s nice around this time, but it’s the cold that I don’t like very much. I would much rather sunbathe in the warm sun than freeze my paws off with shivers racing through my body on the icy patio.
But I make do with what I have this time of year. In fact, I have a much more preferable source of warmness, my good buddy. The old man loves to simply hang out and relax while he watches his picture box, at which point I do get lots and lots of belly rubs, massages, and ear scratches. This is good.
I push the covers around, sort of making a tent above me. The old man isn’t even up yet, still snoring away. Stretching is good for the body and mind I always say, and it feels great too. This is especially good after a long sleeps.
Another a few good stretches and I go ahead and snuggle up closer to the old man, crawling beneath the covers towards the warm snoring. He’s easy to find despite the thicker covers surrounding us. His hand is the first thing I come across. I give it a few licks before it slithers away from me.
So I move on to find the rest of my buddy. His side, where I can hear his heart beating. His arm and a very warm and slightly smelly spot right between. I sniff it a little, which causes the old man to giggle in his sleep, interrupting the snoring.
A large shift then takes place as the old man rolls over and lays on his side. Now his back faces me, though I did manage to steal his very very warm spot where he was previously. But it is time to wake up, at least that’s what my belly is saying. So I go ahead and move further up.
The neck, a very ticklish spot indeed, is next. Simply by sniffing around the ears, I can make the old man laugh and giggle like he was young again. Sometimes this gets me tossed around and cuddled if it’s too early for wake up time.
As it turns out, it is too early, at least according to the old man’s clock. I end up ensnared and tucked into his arms. He doesn’t tickle or massage me though, so this just won’t do. I wiggle and worm my way out and shake it off.
“Wake up,” I woof to the old man, our faces close enough that his nose is tickling my whiskers.
The snoring is no longer, so I know he’s awake. I’m just trying to get him up and out of bed so we can start doing stuff, like playing or eating. Or both. That’s good too. But the old man is being stubborn, and ends up rolling to face the other way.
“Nope,” I tell him.
It’s easy to maneuver now that the covers aren’t on me, and we’re face to face again. Wet nose. And this move gets his eyes to open as he makes a funny face. He tried to pull the covers over his head, but I got in the way fairly easily. I tugged off what I could and started bouncing around to do so. I found that it’s very hard to sleep when someone is bouncing on you.
It isn’t long before the old man concedes and gets up. Then he lays down again, slumping over lazily even after he’s already gotten his slippers on (the bunny faces are fun to chase around sometimes). This will not do, and it’s back to bouncing around and tickling his neck, which is wide open to wet-nose attacks now that the covers aren’t there anymore.
Back up and a little more awake, the old man stretched too, pawing the air as he made funny noises, kind of like I usually do. There were funny faces galore as he did this, each one changing with the strangest noises imaginable. Then he stood up with a final stretch and looked at me.
I looked at him. “Are you ready?”
The old man nodded to me.
“Alright, let’s go.”
Author:
Jason Duron is a short story writer and author of several fiction stories. Curious and lovable as dogs can be, the Adventures of Rocky, Nixi and Dante give you a chance to see daily life from a “dog’s eye view” and share in their thoughts. Please enjoy, and we hope that you’ll feel free to comment and give us insight into your dog’s very own adventures.