The morning ritual

Tuesday, 8:06 am

By Kate

Jul

05

2005

The first thing I do in the morning is go downstairs and let Terry outside. During warm weather, I leave the inside door open. She likes that—she still feels connected to the family and, of course, she can hear everything that goes on. That’s important because, in her heart, she just knows that I’m going to feed Peeps and she’s going to be left out of that all important moment.

And it’s true. Peeps has to eat three small meals a day. He’s so tiny that he is especially susceptible to hypoglycemia which, in turn, leads to seizures. So it’s not a matter of spoiling one dog over the other. It’s just the way things have to be. Try explaining that to the dog who’s not getting three meals a day and thinks that she should.

So after I’ve let Terry out and she’s busy in the back yard taking care of business, I whip the opened dog food can out the fridge, and grab another to open if there isn’t enough in the other can. And I get a clean dish out for Peeps. Those are the sounds that Terry recognizes, but can’t hear when she’s in the back yard. By the time I have the cans and the dish assembled on the counter, just out of Terry’s eyesight, she comes back up on the deck and looks in the door for a moment or two to see what I’m doing.

By then, I have the coffee pot filled with water and while she watches, I put the filter in the basket and measure out the coffee. Terry sees that nothing important is going on so she goes over to her bed and plops herself down.

Then I put the food on Peep’s dish and chop it up very quietly. I turn the radio on loudly enough to mask the sound. Sometimes, I’ll even turn the microwave on for a minute to further mask the sound of chopping food on the dish. Occasionally, Terry still hears the sound of the knife scraping against the dish so she gets up and peers in the door again.

I immediately switch over to coffee pot attendance. Get out a mug, clean out the thermos and prepare it for when the coffee has finished brewing. Once again, Terry sees that nothing exciting is going on and she goes back to her bed.

And then I put Peep’s food down for him, out of Terry’s line of vision. He is, fortunately, a quiet eater.

I finish up with the coffee preparation, pour myself a cup, and fill the thermos with the unused portion of the coffee. Then it’s a wipe on the counter here and one there. Finished. By that time Peeps is finished and his dish goes in the dishwasher. I turn the dishwasher on and tell Terry she’s a good girl and head off upstairs.

It took me several trial and error mornings to get the routine down so that Terry doesn’t know what’s going on. If she has any inkling that Peeps is being fed and she’s not being invited to the party, she gets really pouty and turns on her most annoying bark. A successful morning is one in which Peeps has his breakfast and Terry serenely lounges on her bed, soaking up the morning rays. Then she’s good for a couple of outside hours and that leaves the household in a calm and relaxed frame of mind.

We had a successful morning routine today. Everyone feels pretty good about the world and their place in it. I love mornings like this.