A night in my bedroom

"Jimmy do you want to take her out? Jimmy, JIMMY!, JIMMY!!",  I hear Cindy's voice saying as I slowly wake up, Man I was sleeping hard, I roll over and look at the clock and the red numerals staring at me through the dark look like a fuzzy 3:23am, 3:24, JIMMY!!, "What is it Cindy?" I ask, "Dixie is crying I think she needs to go out." She tells me.

"Oh Ok" I say as I throw the covers back and sit up on the side of the bed, I have learned the hard way to sit up for a few minutes before I stand. Dixie is now snuggling up against me wagging her tail like she is really happy that I am there.

Dixie sleeping on her pillow right where my pillow should be.

Yes folks Dixie sleeps with us, usually at the foot of our bed, that is unless she gets cold then she moves up above my head, which puts my feet to hanging off the foot of the bed, but that is a whole different story.

"Don't fall" Cindy yells as my knee hits the floor, "OK, I won't" I say as I stand back up and feel for Dixie to lift her down to the floor. I hold onto the bed and let my hand slide across the top of the footboard of our bed, after that I can reach across and touch the door to the bathroom, where once on the other side and after waiting for Dixie and closing the door I can "Let there be light".

Dixie and I go to the back door where I unlock the fortress and let her outside to go forth and pee.

Photo by Nancy Guth on Pexels

But instead she stands there and admires the stars in the sky, that is until I remind her why we are now outside, she is fourteen so sometimes a little reminder is helpful, heck sometimes I need a reminder as to why I am just standing there.

After making her "pit stop" aka going pee we come back inside where instead of turning left to our bedroom, she turns right towards the kitchen where she drinks what sounds like about a gallon of water, I guess you have to replace what you let out.

Now I'm trying to coax her back to our bedroom, but instead she heads towards Ray's (Cindy's Dad) bedroom door to check on him. Ray gets up anytime from about 2am to 4am and sometimes Dixie decides to get up with him, but right now there is no light showing underneath his door, so to cut down on time I lift Dixie and carry her back to our room, I shut off the bathroom light and stumble into the darkness of our bedroom where the only light is the red numerals saying that it is now 3:48am.

I place Dixie back onto the bed and it is then that I realize that I too should have made a "pit stop", so I make a u-turn and feel my way back to the bathroom door. Folks I am terrible at finding my way around in the dark, but out of the goodness of my heart, I have practiced maneuvering my way into and out of our bedroom without turning on the lights, I do this for Cindy's sleep health, not to wake my bride, for my own health, simply because it's easier not to wake her, I heard the line on TV once "Don't wake her, she'll maul you like a rabid wolverine!"...yes folks I'm scared of that possibility...

Seriously though she can walk throughout  our whole house without ever turning on a light, myself I figure there is a reason that I pay the electric bill, and that is to keep me from snagging my toe on the furniture, or ending up walking unnecessarily into things, or even worse ending up walking into the wall in the dark. Yes folks normally I have no problem turning on the lights, or leaving them on. Except for at night in our room, I try my best to leave the light off when I get up, because Cindy works hard taking care of her Dad, so I do my best to let her sleep.

Once I shut off the bathroom light and start feeling my way back around our bed, Cindy says "Dixie is crying again, you want me to get her?" "No" I say, "I'm already up." So again I lift her off the bed, stumble my way to the bathroom door and wait for Dixie, I close the door, turn on the light and make my way to the back door where she is standing, I once again unlock the fortress and allow Dixie out into the backyard where she stands admiring the stars.

"Come on Dixie, What are you doing now?" I ask as she comes back inside and heads for the kitchen. I leave her this time to wait for Ray and I head back to our bedroom listening to the lapping sounds of Dixie drinking water, I have learned from past experiences that she is now going to plant herself against Ray's bedroom door until he gets up.

Photo by Alexander Possingham on Unsplash

I shut off the bathroom light, step inside our dark bedroom, and feel my way back around the bed. Just as I sit down and prepare to lay down Cindy asks "Do you want for me to turn on the light?", "It's a little late now, I'm already back in bed, and I didn't want to wake you!" I say to her. "Oh it's OK, I was already awake." She tells me. "Already awake! Then why did you wake me up? You could have taken Dixie out, yourself!" I point out to her.

Cindy then says to me, "Just look at the time Jimmy, you should really try and get some sleep." I could almost feel her smiling in the dark.