A day in the life

It’s been hot, it’s been rainy. And the woods are-a-buzzin’ with bird songs, wild animals and the zzzz’s of far too many flies, bees and mosquitos.
All stuff that affects the dog. Here’s some quick hits.

He did use the fan
I wrote in my last blog: “Dogs heat and cool themselves primarily through their paws, secondarily through their underside — the belly.
That’s probably why you never see a dog lay down in front of a fan. Unless a fan is cooling their paws or belly, it doesn’t really help them out.”
Of course, I went home that night and watched Sensi lay in front of the fan for hours. So I need to clarify that statement about dogs and fans.
In our case, we had one of those big square fans sitting right on the floor. Sensi plopped himself down in front of it and laid on his side, his belly and paws exposed to the fan.
Glad he figured that out.

“I’m not going”
Sensi doesn’t balk at us when we ask him to do something. Sure, sometimes he gets all mopey when he realizes that he’s headed for the bath tub, but he’d never, never refuse to do something we ask of him.
Except going outside in the rain.
While it was pouring down a wall of rain yesterday, Sensi asked to go outside.
Apparently, when Brent opened the door and Sensi caught sight of the rain-wall, he ran back into the living room.
He preceded to lay down there. Brent, thinking it was amusing, called him again to go outside.
Sensi just looked at him and stayed put.
“If you want me out there, you’re going to have to pick me up and carry me out there yourself,” Sensi would’ve said if he could talk. “And good luck with that. I know I’m a heavy guy.”
Brent opened our front door and left it wide open. Sensi moved even further away from it.

A sleepless night
I admit it, I’m a night owl. Even if I get up at the crack of dawn, work my butt off all day and come home and work even more, it doesn’t mean I’ll go to bed at a decent hour.
Once 10 p.m. rolls around, I’m wide awake — no matter how sleep deprived or overworked I may be.
I need eight hours of sleep. I never get eight hours of sleep.
Last night, I attempted to go to bed early at 10:30. I was quite proud of myself.
And then, at 11:15 p.m., I woke up to my dog barking at something outside the window. Half-asleep, I made a strange decision to partially close the window and grumbled to Sensi to go to bed.
But he didn’t. He laid down in front of the window and quieted his barking to a low, continuous growl.
Slowly beginning to wake up, I realized I should take note of Sensi’s behavior and check outside. It is very, very odd for him to bark or growl at night.
Of course, I couldn’t see anything. But I ended up not sleeping much at all last night.
I’m sure there was something out there. I thought I heard some coyotes yipping in the distance as I fell asleep.
I wonder what got him so upset.