The Night I Almost Murdered My New Dog

The first two nights with Sherman proved painless. She crashed early and slept the night through. I think the excitement of new people and a new place, combined with the exercise of walks (which were new, exciting, and multiple) wore her out sufficiently to make her a sound sleeper. Foolishly, I thought, "Okay, she'll be easy at night."

Yesterday we mostly hung around the house and she took a couple of naps during the day and afternoon. I thought little of this. Then, last night I thought I'd head to bed early since I was still a bit tired from Friday night. Eleven thirty, she's got her front paws on my bed, nudging at me. We go out to the backyard to let her go to the bathroom.

One o'clock, I am awakened by dog paws on the bed and dog tongue on my face. Once again, to the back yard. There's a party in the house across the alley that's still going on. Sherman feels the need to bark the laughter coming through the window, which means I have to call her over to me and make her sit down while I pet her (this, I've found, is the best way of shutting her up).
One thirty, she decides it'd be fun to climb in bed with me. (I've decided to enforce a no dogs on furniture policy, so this requires addressing)

Four o'clock, she has to go outside again. By now I'm calling her some not-so-nice names and telling her that I've changed my mind and don't really want a dog after all.

Five o'clock-ish, front paws on the bed, she looks at me with her tail wagging. I look back at her and mutter something about strangulation. I look out the window, it's starting to get light. For a reason I've not yet figured out, when it's dark at night she barks lots, so I hesitate to leave her outside. However, all things considered, I figure it's close enough to daylight. I take her and her food/water dishes outside, leave them there, and sleep for four straight, dog-free hours. When I wake up after them, I decide I will not, after all, murder her.

This afternoon, while I'm working on the computer and drinking cappucino because I need the caffeine, she takes a series of naps. It would seem that being up all night made her tired.

I'm not sure exactly what made her so restless last night. I wonder if it was being mostly inside during the day, the excitement of all the noises coming from the neighbor's party, or simply that she drank too much water before bed. All I know is that we have a bit of adjustment to work on, because sleeping for only an hour or two at a time makes me cranky. Very cranky.

Around four thirty today, I packed her in the car and drove to city park so we could walk to the nature center. We walked a solid three miles, our longest walk to date. Her tongue was lolling out and she'd stopped pulling excitedly on the leash by the time we finished our first mile.

I will sleep soundly tonight, I think.