My dog surprised me this morning. I know the wonderful things that dogs are capable of, having seen and worked with therapy dogs, assistance dogs and other hardworking canines. My dog is simply a pet dog.
Chilli wakes me up most nights to alert me when my 18 year old cat, Clyde, is in need of attention. Clyde wanders around the house some nights, a little disoriented. When he wanders, Chilli comes to my bedside and paws my arm until I get up. Annoying for me. Useful for Clyde. Nothing obvious in it for Chilli.
This morning I was up bright and early before my alarm went off. As I prepared for the day, Chilli came to me and demanded I follow her across the house (by putting her paw on my leg and then running out of the room and back to me again). Eventually I realised I had to follow. It was simply my alarm clock that had gone off. (I had forgotten to turn it off when I got out of bed.) Chilli was telling me that I had to deal with it. Quickly.
Ok, not earth shattering brilliance. Not a hearing dog in the making. But an amazing ability none the less. Especially when there was little obvious reward for Chilli again. I’m wondering what I’ll wake up to tomorrow. Most likely my cat Leo staring down at me!
Have you ever had an experience where a pet has alerted you to a situation that needed your attention?
I have a "scaredy cat" that I bottle-raised from a week old. Tigger is afraid of pretty much everything in the world, including dogs, loud noises, birds, etc. One night before I went to bed (at the back of the house), I put bread mix into my new breadmaker and set the timer so I could wake up to freshly-baked bread in the morning. At about 3:30 am, I was awakened to Tigger crying loudly and running up and down the hallway between me and the kitchen. The remarkable thing was - he could have easily escaped the noisy breadmaker (which was what he was waking me up and alerting me to) by simply going out of the cat door into the backyard enclosure. But he was apparently worried about what the evil, noisy breadmaker would do to me, so he stayed and woke me up. Very sweet, if you think about it from Tigger's point of view. ;-)
Our little tabby cat, Penny used to wake me by sticking a paw in my mouth!
how cute!