Last time I wrote, I mentioned that Charlie still sleeps inside every night.
Most of the time, we wake up at the same time.

Sometimes, Charlie wakes up and wants to go out before I’m ready to get up, especially in winter when I have to psyche myself up to leave my warm bed and make a fire, and so I rigged a long fiberglass pole to the top corner of my back door and it reaches all the way to my sleeping loft, so I can open and close the door without getting out of bed. Super handy bonus of living in a small space.

But usually, we’re ready to start the day together. Charlie stands up and stretches and I put my contacts in and look at him and say “Gooood Moooornnnningggg” in a sing-song voice, and he starts whining and yipping and then lets loose with a howl, and then Chloe joins in (she’s lazy in the morning and outsleeps us all) and she starts barking and howling, too – while still lying down, and Charlie tap dances in circles and I start laughing and the cats jump off the bed and are like, “well I guess it’s MORNING, way to be subtle,” and the day is off and running.

(You can listen to an audio recording of our Good Morning by clicking HERE.)

photo taken April 2007

Charlie is such a lover – he curls up on my lap and licks my face and I melt from the awe of it all. It takes enormous amounts of discipline to get any work done – when he’s awake, I want to play with him, and when he’s sleeping, I just want to gaze at him.

His first night with me, I made a nest in a box for him next to my bed. He whined and cried all night and I got no sleep whatsoever. The next night, Charlie began to whimper and I scooped him out of the box and put him in bed with me up against my body. Again, I didn’t sleep a wink, I was so afraid of rolling on him. But Charlie slept soundly through the night, and has spent every night since curled up in the crook of my neck.

photo taken April 2007

photo taken April 2007