Truman - The Chocolate Lab Alarm Clock

There are two things you should know about my little family.

1)   We get up very early in the morning. My husband is up and on his way at 3:15AM. I follow at 3:45AM and our daughter is up before 5:30AM.  Yep, you have to get up pretty early in the morning to catch the worms that we early birds catch! Our dog, Truman gets up with each one of us in turn and then goes back to sleep and waits for the next family member to wake up.

2)   Truman is a great dog. He is not a barker unless someone is approaching the house. He prefers to communicate through tail wagging, body wiggling, very loud sighs and occasionally quiet whining. He starts off whining very quietly when he wants someone or something and he continues to get louder until someone notices.  Sort of like some alarm clocks!

And Truman is smart.

This morning, at 3:30 AM I heard a thump on the door followed momentarily by a very faint whine. Sure enough. Truman had head-butted our bedroom door open and was now standing in the doorway of our bedroom, looking intently at the bed and starting his incredibly quiet whining. Sort of like he doesn’t want to wake everyone up. Just one person.

Why? Because he thought we had overslept!  This is not the first time he has done this. It’s like his internal clock knows exactly what time it is and that something in the household is not right!! Either that or he can read the clocks. Hmmm. Never thought of that!?

What a great trick, right?  But today is SATURDAY!!  The day we can sleep in!!

So I got up and he was oh so proud of himself. Tail wagging, shaking out his body and doing his downward dog yoga moves. It would be wrong to get mad at the dog who may have just saved us from showing up late for work or school! So I let him outside, waited for him to sniff around and come back in, filled up his water dish, patted him on the head and stumbled back to the bedroom for some much needed additional sleep, making sure the door was shut securely behind me.

Note to self. On Friday nights, remember to shut the bedroom door completely!

And Truman, someday we really might just oversleep and I trust you will be there for us! Thanks in advance you incredible dog you!

Keep on smiling!