Yes I am stealing the title of one of my sister’s blog, but only because the two are related, we are brother and sister, and the blog post is sort of related as well. In fact to really understand this entry I encourage you to read hers so go ahead click on the following link, no worries it will open in a separate window and when you are done reading her post I will meet you back here and all will make sense so, Please Shut the Door On Your Way Out.
Ah, there you are, so nice of you to come back.
Just before we go to bed I take Sequoia out for her final walk of the evening. She does her business, spends a few minutes checking things out and head back inside. I get her dinner together set her up in her room and my wife and I go to bed.
Many a nights, about 15 minutes after we get under the covers Sequoia starts to howl. When we decided to keep Sequoia my wife and I both made her promises and we tend to stick to those promises. One of mine was that if she really needs something after lights out all she needs to do is howl loud enough for me to hear and I’ll come and make sure she is okay.
For the most part the only time she called out was during thunder storms. Then a few months ago when we were in the process of switching her meds she was not reacting well and all she wanted to do was drink water. Every night when I got into bed she would howl. I would drag my arse out of bed and take her out, again she would do her business and we would head back in the house and call it a night. Some nights I had to get up a few times and still in the morning I would have to clean her floor.
Now Sequoia is doing much better, but she still calls out at night. Not all the time, but when it starts it goes on every night for weeks. I figured it became part of the routine from when she was sick. Sequoia happens to thrive on her routine.
I was talking to the owner of Wiscoy who is very knowledgeable and she mentioned that she had a dog who, as the dog got older demanded more attention, Wanda (the owner of Wiscoy) thinks that maybe, just maybe as the dog got older she needed to know that Wanda was still there looking out for her. Now this may be anthromorphising but there is a ring of truth to it, we also have an older cat who seems to be more snuggly than ever before.
I noticed that when I took Sequoia out she didn’t always pee. Sequoia, more often then not would wander onto the grass, smell the ground head back to the house and make a bee line for her bed and that would be that. Now if she calls I don’t even take her outside. I just let her wander around the living room for a few minutes then all on her own she will wander into her room and curl up in her bed. It is almost like she just wants to make sure the world still exists outside her door and once satisfied that it does and we are still in it she is fine.
And that is alright by me.
PanningForGold 
Sounds like you are a great doggie dad, and I would tend to agree that is him wanting to ensure everything is the same, in his own way.
My stepdog Quinn is a senior, he will be 12 this year, and in the 3 years I have known him he is getting older and slower and yes cuddlier. Or maybe he is finally warming up to me. Either way the little furball imitates whatever beagle does, so he is getting cuddlier and having loud dreams as well. He is mini me.
Glad he is warming up to you. And yes it is hard to watch them get older, but it is nice that they get cuddlier.
Yes, the beagle is getting older. The beagle is a great role-model for the fur-ball. The fur-ball is not a mini Brahm, though. The fur-ball is cuddlier and (sometimes) demands more attention than Brahm.
Nice stories! 🙂
As always, thank you!
With our Kipper dog, the Schipperke, admittedly he is a small dog 17lbs, as a pack animal he wants or needs to sleep in our room at night. He LOVES going to bed but waits until he sees me flossing and then gets up and walks to the bedroom door looking back and tossing his head as if to say, come on, let’s go to bed.
He has a small bed/basket in the corner which he goes into and then paws and paws his sheet wrapping it a certain way, curling up in a ball and plopping down. When he hears my breath pattern changing, after REM sleep, usually about 4am, he jumps up and sleeps on the end of the bed. When I start to rise from sleep around 7ish, he moves to my face side near the top of the bed. He follows this routine slavishly every night.
Enjoy the dry humour in your blogs.
Jim
As always, thanks for reading, glad you are still enjoying the blog. Isn’t it amazing how they fall into routines?