The sun is rising later these days. It’s past 7 o’clock by the time it hits those buildings that I can see from my window. Naturally, she adapts. She rises later too! She opens one eye, then the other, then yawns. She stretches her arms while she yawns again, then stretches her legs in a perfect yoga pose and yawns once more.
The protective instinct in her determines her next move, checking on everyone, the floor creaks a little with the small thumps of her walking around the house. We’re asleep so she stares at each and every one of us as if to make sure that we are breathing. She leans into our faces and when she feels us exhale, she seems satisfied and on to the next.
When she gets to my bedside, she sits next to me. I’m awake but pretending to sleep and desperately clinging to my beloved pillow, but I can feel her staring eyes piercing me. As if the sheer power of that stare would lift me from the bed… I try to stay still a few more minutes, but it doesn’t matter how hard I pretend to toss and turn. She figured it out. She knows I’m awake. And she wills me to open my eyes.
The moment I do, a slobbery kiss… She’s wagging her tail.
Written on November 2005.
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