4 a.m.

It's the magic hour around here.  The hour where little puppies start to stir.  When sounds of deep puppy dreams turn to sounds of little jingling cat bells in the kennel.  It's the hour that I keep TRYING to wait out, hoping that Cooper will sleep through.  But today is not that day.  By 4:30, after listening to him wiggle and shift for half an hour, I knew that Cooper was most definitely waking up.  He needed to go out.  So I finally caved, got up, and took my little dude outside to take care of business.  Which he did...instantly.  The problem with this picture though, is that Cooper has no interest in going BACK to bed once he gets up.  He's kind of like me...once he's awake, he's awake.  This morning, he was awake and on a mission.  Of course, I tried shoving his furry little hiney back into the crate so we MIGHT go back to sleep.  But he was not down with that plan at all and I knew within 30 seconds it wasn't going to happen.  And so I let him out...where he immediately starting barking at me and went to the bedroom door.  He had all kinds of barking things to tell me.  Not just one little woof...but a whole conversation of them.  Complete with scratching at the door.  That boy meant to get out of the bedroom and NOW.  And so I opened the door.  Cooper went flying out of there and made a beeline for the kitchen where he skidded into place directly in front of...his empty food bowl.  And there he sat, tail wagging, looking ever so expectantly from the bowl, up to me, and then back at the bowl again.  It is safe to say that Cooper likes to eat.  Actually, that's an understatement.  Cooper LOVES to eat.  He's SO motivated by food.  And treats.  And food.  His little tail wags so hard when he eats that it literally drags him around and around the bowl in circles while he eats.  The lady who had his litter said they called him Fat Daddy.  And Cooper was most definitely the most roly poly guy of the bunch....hands down.  I have a sneaking suspicion that maybe, just maybe, Cooper was eating his share of the puppy kibble and THEN some before he came to live with us.  He will easily eat his enitre ration of food and then snarf down as much of Oscar's as he possibly can before I remove it from his reach.  And I know that he would do it several times a day IF I offered it to him.  I'll be asking the vet this morning exactly what she thinks his alotment should be each day.  I sure wouldn't mind a magic puppy formula that I could give him at night that would keep him full and sleepy past 4 a.m.!!!  And so, now here I sit at 5:19 a.m., enjoying my first cup of coffee and being amused at Cooper here in the study.  He sees his reflection in the glass doors and I do believe he thinks there is another pup amongst us.  I keep hearing tiny growls and little sputtery cough barks...like he's guarding, but has no idea what he's up against and isn't sold on the idea of launching a full on attack.  It is safe to say that I am handling 4 a.m. MUCH better this morning than I did yesterday!  I'm even going to dig into my bible study and knock some of that out as I still have an hour before I have any kiddos on the scene!  Who knows...perhaps this 4 a.m. stuff could be good for me?  As I sit here thinking...I could get all sorts of laundry and such done at an hour like this, if I just plan a little bit the night before.  I don't think I could get away with vaccuuming.  Pretty sure that would be an unpopular choice of chores to accomplish at this hour...but laundry and ironing and other quiet tasks...oh yeah!   On the bright side...I think I now have a plan for tomorrow!