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It was 6:30 in the morning, dark, and raining. Ray the Blind Dog scratched on the bedroom door signaling his desire to go out and pee. I crawled out of bed, gently retrieved my sandals, and quietly exited the room so as not to wake my lovely husband.

I fumbled around with the umbrella, flashlight, and dog leash. (It is inadvisable to let Ray out unattended first thing in the morning. He likes to trumpet the dawn.) We exited and Ray quickly identified the correct place to pee. Usually, this a pretty involved process but since he really doesn't like being rained on first thing in the morning, his brain-box was firing on all cylinders.

We returned to the kitchen, I toweled off Ray's feet, gave the rest of him a quick rubdown, and turned him lose. He meandered off to bed. After a few minutes, I followed him and laid down on one section of the L-shaped couch for a few more minutes of sleep. I could hear Ray licking himself dry. He was busy for a good ten minutes and I thought I was in the clear but the minute he finished, Ray headed over to try to convince me to move my feet so that he could sleep with me. As I've mentioned in previous blogs, it is extreeeeemly difficult to get comfortable with a 68 pound dog sharing a narrow sleeping space, so I pretended to be asleep and didn't move a muscle.

Ray stood his front feet on the edge of the couch and pawed at the afghan covering my legs. I didn't budge. He jumped his feet down and moved over a foot to do the same at my waist. I didn't budge. He jumped his feet down and moved to my head. Ray lay his head down on my shoulder, his nose a breath's distance from my cheek. I didn't budge. He gave a little whine then climbed up on the other section of the L. He turned a few circles and was using his nose to shift things around to his liking. I was just congratulating myself on the success of my strategy when a pillow landed on my face, then another one on my head. Ray climbed back down off his section of the couch, went back to my feet, and pawed at the afghan again.

Point taken, I shifted enough to let the dog climb up.

He's snoring at my feet. I can't sleep. I'm blogging.