Cute Protection

Last night I knocked myself out. Yes, I finally got some sleep. I took two sleeping pills and waited. Now usually it only takes close to ten maybe twenty minutes for me to fall asleep after two sleeping pills and I do take melatonin too, but last night it took more like three hours. My body was actually fighting sleep. It was nearly one in the blessed a.m. before I hit dreamland but I did get tons of great sleep.

This is Lucy. This is what was sleeping next to me.

This morning when I finally woke up my body was aching all over. It was raining. I really wanted to stay in bed and ride out the day but I have puppies to take care of and things to do. Lucy was sleeping next to me in bed when I woke up and she took over the bed as soon as I got up. She has this thing about keeping me out of bed. She stretches across the bed so I can't lie down. Lucy thinks I can't or won't move her because she believes I'm not strong enough. She's such a little thing, about as small as a medium-sized cat with a big dog complex. Oh yes, she thinks she's a Rottweiler. Yes, that's what she thinks she really is. When I go outside to water and weed the garden and the courtyard plants she stands guard. I fucking kid you not! She stands at attention, facing away from me watching out for danger and she moves when I do. It's freaking weird, like what is she protecting me from? Killer squirrels? Ants? She also does it in the house. She follows me everywhere I go and when I stop moving she does too and she immediately takes up the defensive stance facing away from me. It's fun to watch her do this because I've never seen a dog do this, ever. 

The first time I saw her stand to defend me was when I was folding jeans from the dryer in the laundry room. She was facing away and I thought it was odd behavior. She moved when I moved and always with that posture. Later when I was making dinner she did it again. When I was sitting in the living room reading she would stand guard and then get tired and come to sit next to me on the sofa eventually falling asleep but she would still be guarding me because she planted herself so close to me that she would feel when I got up to do something. I started noticing her doing it to David too. She would guard him when he was making lunch. If we were in the same room she would move into an area to widen her guarding stance. I told David and he didn't believe me until one day when he actually paid attention to Lucy's movements. He walked into the kitchen and she was close to him and then stepped in front to guard. He said it was the strangest thing. I said she must be taking up Spunky's job. He can't see or hear so she's taking up what she believes in her mind to be her job now. It just blew David away at how smart that little girl is.