d.a.n.t.

It is the middle of the night, and I am sitting in near-silence listening to the haunting call of an owl in the woods nearby. Dog is resting close to my feet, looking up at me from time to time. A breeze is ruffling the draperies and I am doing what I do most nights at this time...regrouping, planning, reflecting, centering. And playing on Facebook. And hitting the Stumble button....

I had this whole wonderful introduction planned, and then my girls got out of bed and my train of thought went down the wrong track, and I can't remember what I was going to write. (See "About Me," where I mention the word scatter-brained.) I'm quite sure it will come to me just about the time I get settled into bed.

Dog is looking at me now, and I can see by her expression she is thinking Would you hurry up already and close that thing down so we can go to bed? I know this to be true, because Dog and I have this connection. (It's amazing, but true, and if you are a dog person, you know what I mean.) Plus, when I looked away from her and back to the screen, she heaved an exasperated sigh and flopped back down. See, of the five of us, Dog loves me most of all. If I leave the room, Dog follows. She is underfoot when I am cooking (some people say this is because she is hoping for tasty morsels, but I refuse to believe it is anything less than her total devotion to me); she watches out the window when I leave and--according to my husband--whimpers until she can no longer see me; and she dozes off and on wherever I am 'centering' until I head for bed, at which point she tries to get there before I do.

Dog and I have this little struggle for possession of the spot next to my husband; we both want to sleep next to him, and sometimes she worms her way right into the middle. Mind you, I'm not complaining, because we love Dog, and even though we said no dogs on the bed when she first found us, it's hard to resist her total adorableness. As long as I get my covers, it's all good.

She is looking at me again and I can see she is getting impatient. I think it's time to say night-night. This devotion thing runs both ways, you know.