ONE STEP CLOSER TO CUDDLETOWN

Our dogs are a constant source of amazement to me, intuitive, intelligent and so very into bed time. Or as I called it tonight, cuddletown. I took off my shoes a few minutes ago and Irene was all over me, wagging the tail ever so gently and giving me those curl up in the comforter eyes. Theo will stand in the hall by the bedroom door after 10pm, facing us and give a plaintive bark, as if reminding us it's past "our" bedtime. Sullivan is like minded, when it's his turn these days, but back when we could have all three of them together without fear of a fight erupting, Sully would rally us with Theos admonitions that it was time to spoon...like NOW, ok?
This is especially true in winter.
I remember always having an affinity to dogs...the one's my family had as well as any stray I encountered and the dogs that hung out at my high school. There were 2 in particular...this basset hound looking mutt dressed in black and white named Bootlegger and a mid sized mutt with one eye named Jocker aka cyclops, Jocker would greet me in the morning in the smoking area to feast on the lunch my mom packed for me that I never ate, because it was tater tot's with mustard and chocolate milk that I wanted after driving around and smoking ungodly amounts of weed...hey, it was the 70's, we could get away with it back then. Jocker was hit by a car and killed right by the school in my junior year, and it was only then that we learned he was owned by a teacher at the middle school, Mrs. Heard, who allowed us to bury him in the field that was the "extended" smoking area. And bury him we did, complete with a grave marker. It was photographed and featured in the yearbook that year...1976. I remember Jocker greeting me on the patio by the library every morning like it was yesterday, he loved my mom's lunches, especially the meatloaf sandwiches. And he would always hang around after breakfast, for pets. He was an awesome dog.
I brought home strays all the time, my mom was as big a softy as me when it came to strays, so it was never a problem. So I would have these dogs for a period of time and then we would find the owner or they would leave and go home, or wander off into the next (hopefully) kind human host. The neighborhood dogs hung out at our house all the time, I guess either sensing the affinity or smelling the food my mom would cook for them. Either way it was cool with me, they were dogs gracing us with canine company.
But I started out rambling about cuddletown, which is really about the pack, and the pack beds down together. You hear all the time about people thinking of thier dogs as "human", maybe it's the other way around. And I'm cool with that.
Wow...look at the time...:)