One of the best parts about the life I have built is being able to spend most of my time with my dogs. I sleep next to them them. I eat near them. I walk them. We snuggle together. When I’m working out, they are in the next room. When I’m doing chores, they are hanging out nearby.
At night, when I’m ready for bed, I call them into my bedroom. Snickers curls up in her favorite spot – the dog bed. Wiggles waits for me to call her up onto my bed then jumps up, wiggling her entire body, as she waits for me to lift the covers so she can burrow underneath next to my body.
At various times throughout the night the dogs will switch positions. Sometimes they’ll sandwich me between them, with each one pushing up against a different side.
If they are agitated, I’ll pet them to calm them down. If I wake up from a bad dream, I’ll pet them to calm myself down.
In the morning, after feeding them and doing a long morning walk with Wiggles, I’ll sit on the couch for a few minutes before starting my workout. This is a time when Wiggles likes to bond. She’ll jump up, push against my leg and nudge me for a massage. We’ll sit in the dark like this for 10-15 minutes until I stop. She’ll trots off to her dog bed as I make my way to the garage.
Every afternoon, after lunch and our daily forest walk, I’ll do some chores and then lay down for a 30 minute siesta. This is one of the highlights of Wiggles’ day. She’ll snuggle up against me on the bed or next to me on the patio, if it’s warm and sunny, demanding pets until we both doze off.
It’s a simple pleasure, sleeping with dogs. I plan to do it for the rest of my life.
Postscript: It’s hard to imagine when I wrote this that only 2 days later I would learn Snickers was suffering from canine cognitive disorder and in less than a week that I would have her put to sleep.