We foolish human family members lay in bed sleeping peacefully. Blissfully
unaware that SHE lay in wait. How or when she ever learned to tell time we
may never know, but our Kimi darling dearest has figured out the timing of
this world. Or maybe it's just her own internal timing she goes by?
Does it matter? When a tree falls in the forest, does it matter what made it
fall?
When a young eaglet learns to fly, does it matter HOW it knew it could? Or
that it was time to try? Maybe to some it does, but not to Kimi. All that
matters to her right at this very moment is that it is morning. And it is
time for all to awaken. Now, it is apparent to all that she has figured out
the order of waking in this household. And Kimi moves in to wake up the one
who wakes up first. Or perhaps easiest.
Have you ever laid there mostly asleep yet slowly climbing from under a sound
slumber, only to know, to FEEL someone or something WATCHING you? Maybe you
haven't felt any kind of touch yet, Maybe you have. Maybe you SENSE
something. Maybe you don't. But whatever it is, something seeps into your
consciousness and tells you IT is there. Reluctantly and regretfully you
slowly open one eye. Just a crack. It opens to the barest of slits. But IT
is there. Watching you. You groan, you close your eye, you pray under your
breath that it's not real. And again you open one eye. Just a tad. But IT
is still there. Watching you. So you consciously choose to close your eye
again and pretend IT is not there. Watching you.
Then you feel IT. A tiny, wet, cold nose, prepared that way especially for
you and the job she must perform. IT bumps your nose, once...twice.
Then.....nothing. Thinking, hoping IT has gone away, you sneak a tiny peek.
But IT is still there. Watching you. You quickly slam your eye shut again,
hoping IT has not noticed you are awake. You once again pretend to be asleep.
Then IT does it again. You feel that cold, wet, jabbing nose. Once, twice it
pokes you, then......nothing, Yet.....something. There are no more pokes,
prods, or jabs. Yet you can still feel that wet chilly touch. Of its own
accord your eye opens to the curious wonder of your mind. And there IT is.
Nose to nose, watching you. Dark little beady eyes, focused on the sleepy
not-so-focused eyes of Daddy!
Laying there on his chest, gracefully rising and falling to the rhythm of his
sleepy breath, Kimi waited. And watched. Knowing it was time for him to rise
for the day, yet not anyone else, she knew just the right tactics to make sure
he got up on time. With a deep, unblinking stare she can reach right into his
sleeping subconscious mind to find his conscious mind as it awakens. And if
it appears he responds to slowly, she calls in her reserves. The cold nose on
the warm skin trick. Hey! A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do! We all
have a job to do within the family structure you know! And to keep the house
running like a well oiled wheel, everyone has to do his or her fair share.
Daddy slowly grumbles, "Okay Kimi, Okay......I'm getting up."
In girlish excitement Kimi bounds from the bed yipping madly at daddy to hurry
up. She wants to play! I lay there and hear daddy pulling his pants from the
drawer and trying to put them on, one leg at a time. I say trying because
Kimi is also trying to help. As daddy pulls them up, she grabs the bottom of
a leg and pulls them DOWN! I chuckle in my own mind. (so as not to let Kimi
think that I too am awake, least she turn her advance towards me!) As I
listen to daddy quietly yelling "Kimi! No! Let me put them ON!" This is a
daily ritual here. Our Kimi is, if anything, a creature of habit. But then
aren't we all? With this, daddy sleepily stumbles out the door, down the hall
and toward the kitchen. To the joyful accompaniment of "YIP!" and "GRRRR!" as
Kimi nips at his bare feet, tugs on his pants leg and bounces back and forth
in front of him, she serenades daddy while narrowly missing his groggily
planted steps. Of course as Kimi serenades daddy with her cheerful good
morning song, he blends in his own grumpy chorus of "Kimi, NO!" and "Kimi,
stop it!" And as it ends with a hearty rendition of "Kimi knock it off, GIVE
ME MY FOOT!" I chuckle out loud and roll over to go back to sleep. Aaahhh so
glad it is HIM and not me!
But as we all know, time seems to pass more quickly in your sleep. Before I
knew it, it was time. Certainly before I was ready for it, my turn to be
roused from bed has come. Now if any of you knew me well enough, you'd know I
am not willingly woken, and all who come to do so tread in dangerous waters.
My normally sunny disposition is well hidden by the fuzziness of sleep. Yet
my senses that border on survival know enough to warn me when she is coming.
Maybe it is that first pounce to the bed Maybe even before that when,
somewhere in the back of my mind I hear the tiny thunder of running feet
flying down the hallway, into my room, across the floor, onto the bed and
WWHHAAMM!!! Landing right smack dab in the middle of my rib cage! All the
air I just taken in on a breath came rushing out in a loud "OOOOFFFF!!!!!"
Followed, as soon as I could breath again by "Oh Kimi!" I pulled the blankets
over my head just in time to feel those tiny feet leave the bed again in
another MOMMY POUNCE! "OOOFFF! KIMI!"
I rolled over on to my back to escape those tiny toes that manage to wiggle
their way between the ribs and snuggled down, hoping she would just go away.
But like any type of beady eyed vermin.....she would not, did not, just go
away! I could not smell her as my nose is only just a people type nose. I
could not see her, being snuggled down with the blankets over my head. And I
could not hear her, so quietly did she wait. But I could FEEL her there.
Waiting. Watching. Just as I was about to relax, thinking, hoping, praying
she had gone away, she struck. With a loud and vicious "YIP!!" She pounced
me again. This time landing square in the middle of my ..uh.....bread basket.
"UUGHH! KKKIIIMMII!" My words came out on a pounced rush of air. I threw the
blankets off my head and delivered unto her my meanest, most evil glare,
designed to scare off small children and drop men dead at my feet. Not that
it mattered a whip to her! With a gleeful grin upon her face, eyes crinkling
in the corners, she threw back her head, shouted out "YIP!!!!!!!" (BONZIA!)
and pounced me again! ""OOOHH!!" came out with a rush.
That's it! I've had it! I sat up, tossed back my hair, which of course Ms.
Sneaky decided to grab as it swung out and she gave it a playful yet painful
tug, and said "OW! Let go of my hair! KIMI!" That said, I gave her an evil
grin, which turns out is a mix between the evil glare I cannot quite pull off
over my grinning at her... and the grin of course. Taking a deep breath, I
tried another approach. I quietly and politely said....."Kimi, it is NOT time
for mommy to get up yet, please go away." And with that I laid down..on my
OTHER side this time, pulled the blankets up over my head and closed my eyes.
Which ought to teach my to look closer at any given situation and not accept
what I believe to see on the surface. I was hoping after clearly explaining
to Kimi that mommy dearest was going back to sleep, she would just as quietly
and politely lay down too. I rested peacefully in blissful ignorance for all
of 10 seconds. Which is about as long as it took me to settle down under my
blankets, breath deeply once or twice and allow myself to relax. Then she
struck. She pounced. She attacked.
With a mighty "YIP!" followed by a vicious "GGRRrrrrr!!" topped off by a
mighty "RRRYIP!" I was pounced upon. I was rattled. My blankets were shaken
and yanked down. My ribs were poked, and prodded by her sharp nose. She tap
danced across my slumbering skin as she pounced and all the while, finding
some way to defy gravity and add twenty pounds in weight to each of her
pounces.
Still it did her no good. Us mommy types are pretty good at ignoring the
needs of others when we are trying to get our much needed beauty sleep. So I
treated her like you would any other bully and ignored her. Which of course
frustrated her to no end. Which she then in turn took her deepening
frustrations out on me! Kimi grabbed the blankets between her pearly whites
and tried her hardest to strip them off of me. She bounced, she tugged, she
yanked, and all the while her tiny body was hunkered down, except for the back
end of course which was sky high. Yep. Nearly straight into the air was her
other end! She was tugging and yanking on my blankets so hard that her chest
was to the bed and her........uh...other end was pointed.....up. With a
series of vicious "RRRrr'' "RRRrrr" "RRRrrr" 's she gripped that blanket
with the fierceness of a bear. And not just any old teddy bear either! This
was a tough mean old bear kind of growl. And as she tugged, and as she went
"RRRrrr" I knew her to be saying "Come on Mommy! GET UP!!"
And so it went like this..."RRRrrr!" (Come on mommy!) "RRRrrr!" ( Get up!)
And my blankets would slip just a bit further.......south.
"RRRrrr!" (Come on mommy!) "RRRrrr!" (Get up!) And another inch southward
they slipped.
Then, wouldn't you know it, just as I felt a slight chill to a spot that
shouldn't be chilled, Kimi spotted that spot as well. Not having too see her
grin too hear it in her "YIP!" I braced myself for her attack. Feeling her
quick movement on the bed and having no time to react or take cover, she did
it. Kimi nipped me. Right on the behind! "'YEOW! HEY! Kimi! NO!" came my
startled cry. About 5 seconds after she launched herself at my, the thought
came to mind that there are no preparations that work when one sneaks up
from.....uh....behind you.
Again she jumped forward. Again she nipped my nether region. Again came
"YYEOW! STOP THAT!" And again I heard her breathy little "ahhhahhhahh" As
though she were laughing! AT ME! I looked at her, and sure enough. There
sat the little imp, grinning widely, tongue hanging askew from one corner of
her mouth and eyes aglow with twinkling stars Reaching out for her with one
hand, while my other hand rubbed and unmentionable spot, I asked her......"WHY
do you have to do this to me every morning? Why oh Why oh Why???" And for
her answer came this........"YIP!" Which I took to mean, "Because".....which
is the answer most kids give to us when we foolishly ask them "Why". There
doesn't need to be a reason in the eyes or heart of a child. 'Because' is
good enough for them. Because she can. Because it's there. As it was for us
when we were children. So I suspect it is much the same for our puppies as
well.
We ask "why" and they answer "YI!P".....meaning because.
Glancing from grinning imp to my clock I saw that it was time to get up
anyway. Knowing it was too early in the morning too battle another power
struggle with Kimi, and knowing I was not yet awake enough to win it, I simply
said to her..."Ok....I'm up NNNOOWWWWW!"
And as I sat up and scooted to the edge of the bed, Kimi set about to be
certain mommy did not entertain the foolish though of sneaking in five more
minutes. With a quick one two jab of her nose to my rib cage and an even
quicker NIP NIP to my rising backside, I was up. Kimi was happy, and so began
our day.
I left to take my shower, wake up to a bright day, and nurse my wounded pride.
Wouldn't you know it though? When I walked back in to my bedroom following my
shower, there lay Kimi. Sleeping peacefully. Like an angel. Well, I guess
being a daily alarm clock is tough work for one so tiny. Feeling the devil
sitting on my shoulder, nudging my ear, I heard "Do you dare to go and wake
her?" Feeling the soft reproach of the good Kristi on the other shoulder, I
stopped to weigh my options. Do I wake her now as she woke me? Or not?
Fortunately the good side of mommy won out and I decided that for now, letting
sleeping dogs lie is the better part of valor. And at least this way maybe I
would be able to get my kitchen swept without Kimi the Killer (of all evil-do-
ers) attacking the hidden monsters in the bristles as I swept.
Kimi's hidden message in this story? Greet each day with a smile and share it
with everyone you come in contact with. It makes getting out of bed easier to
do. At least for one of you.
walk in beauty
Kristi & Kimi