I am not a morning person.  I like to wake up slowly and without a lot of noise.  I need a cup of coffee (or two) before I can form a coherent sentence.  My family knows this, even Maisie and Annie know this.  Annie learned to embrace Maisie’s habit of sleeping in. Up until 6 months ago, we all had a very peaceful morning routine. And then along came Winn…

I knew the first few months with a puppy would be rough.  Puppies have a lot of demands and need constant attention.  I was thrilled when I woke up one morning and Winn had slept all the way through the night!

For the first couple of months we kept her in a crate at night and she would wake up around 5:30 or 6. I learned that I had a few minutes to gather my wits when she would start squawking while playing with a toy. She was between 4 and 5 months old when we decided to let her try sleeping outside her crate.  Overall, it’s gone very well.

As Winn has gotten bigger, she has also gotten more rambunctious in the morning.  Most mornings I wake up to two huge paws slamming down on the bed somewhere near my chest.  She will start to pull herself up and with that comes the bony elbows, usually in my gut.  Before I know it, she launches her heavy body on top of me and starts snuffling my ear and kissing my face. She’s huge, her paws are huge and her head is bigger than mine.  It’s a lot to take in for anyone, much less a non-morning person like myself. It’s also impossible to ignore her. She pounces around and it’s like having a toddler jumping on the bed, singing “wake up, wake up, wake up”!

On many mornings, my husband (who is a morning person) will let her out and then Winn will come bounding upstairs for round 2.  While she’s waiting for the magic hour of breakfast time, she will repeat the process of the paw slam, the bony elbows and the body launch only this time she will snuggle up next to me, roll over onto her back and wave her legs around.  While she’s wiggling around and waving her legs she makes all kinds of noises that I assume are commands to “rub my belly, rub my belly, rub my belly”.

Poor Maisie, she’s not a fan of this wake up call either but Annie, who doesn’t want to allow this crazy puppy to get all of my attention, usually rushes over and begins barking in my face. It’s hard to remember the days when it was just Maisie and I, staggering down the stairs together and taking our sweet time getting ready for a new day. This is my alarm clock now and as aggravating as it might be, I also love being greeted in the morning by these two enthusiastic girls. It’s time to get up and face the day!