Oh, What a Beautiful Morning

Our morning routine has changed over the last few weeks. Ken and Rudy still get up first, usually about 6 AM, and Emme and I follow about a half hour later. After I have taken Emme outside, I go upstairs to use the bathroom. While I am gone, Emme still sits on the kitchen floor and gets her massage from "Hans" but she often cuts it short to run up the stairs to visit me as I am brushing my teeth. After she has had a chance to wake up and play for a short while, I give her breakfast. After she goes outside again, we are letting her stay up as we have breakfast. Until just a few weeks ago, we put her back in her crate until we were finished with breakfast. She is learning quickly the morning expectations: Ken and I drink a whole pot of coffee, read two newspapers, and do Suduko and Crossword puzzles. Retirement is wonderful. The entire time, Emme and Rudy lay quietly on the floor and usually sleep. After we have eaten breakfast, Emme has started asking to come up on Ken's lap for a cuddle. She sits by his chair and whines and then he picks her up and wraps her in his bathrobe or sweatshirt jacket. She falls back to sleep for 20 minutes or a half hour as we chat and plan the day.

She also comes upstairs with me while I shower and dress. I shut the bedroom door so I can keep an eye on her. When I get into the shower, she sits by the side of the tub and whines. I am not sure what that is about: Does she not like the sound of the shower water? Does she wonder where I am? Does she want to get in with me? Who knows. After I step out of the shower, she has decided that is her job to help me dry off. I use a towel for the top part of me and she licks me like mad from my toes to my knees. When I am done, I am clean on top and covered with puppy spit from the knees down. Before I had a puppy, I used to be such a fastidious person.