Our beloved dog, Katie, is an almost 13-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Anyone that knows this breed knows that they have needs, and things really go up a notch as they get older.
For posterity’s sake, I thought I’d document the magic that is a weekday in our lives with Katie. I work from home (which enables these shenanigans), and while weekends vary a little bit, they’re also pretty similar.
6:30-7:00am: Katie, who sleeps in a little baby gate-style enclosed area that we call her “world” (which contains her beloved doggie bed), starts scratching at the gate to get our attention. If we ignore her, she continues scratching relentlessly until we respond. The T-1000 looks like a wallflower compared to her level of dedication.
After being liberated, she’ll immediately try to find Sarah (to make eye contact and therefore “pay tribute”), then either report to me for her morning walk, or roll around on the carpet for a few minutes, then report for her walk.
6:45-7:15am: First things first, I take off her doggie diaper, which she wears due to one of her medications (more on those later) causing extra thirst, and therefore extra urination. Probably 1/10 times I’ll forget to take the diaper off, which is fun.
On the walk, she’ll amble around for a while, usually pooping once, but sometimes twice, typically when I only have one poop bag with me. We suspect that sabotaging me brings her no small amount of joy.
Once back inside, a strict routine begins. First comes the new diaper. Then comes a Greenie, as a reward for going on her walk. If we run out of Greenies and have to substitute something else, it doesn’t go well. We have a fallback treat called America’s VetDogs, which she despises. Honestly feels like she hates our troops, who can say?
After the Greenie comes the batch of morning pills to combat her congestive heart failure. She obviously won’t eat them directly, so they get jammed inside Greenies Pill Pockets, which she loves. Aside from the bedtime routine, this is one of the high points of her day.
Finally, she goes back to her “world” (sleeping area) and grabs a Milk Bone that she’s kept untouched from the night before. She’s determined that mornings are the time for eating the Milk Bone, or her “cookie,” as we call it.
At this point if she’s already greeted Sarah, she’ll sleep (snoring loudly) until about 11:30am. If Sarah is still sleeping or isn’t around, she’ll bark randomly or scratch at the door to go out, despite having just gone out. To stop this, I have to crack the door open a bit, a move I call the “psychological door open.” Then she’ll sleep until 11:30.
11:30am: Once she wakes up, it’s time for the lunch walk. This one’s pretty quick (unless I forget the diaper), then she sleeps again until about 3pm.
3:00pm: We do another walk, sometimes accompanied by another psychological door open. It goes with saying that Greenies are the reward for both walks, along with filling up multiple water bowls to combat the increased thirst from her medications.
5:30pm: Sarah gets back from work, at which point she takes Katie on a “Miss Sarah walk,” (meaning one of good quality, unlike Mr. Kyle’s fast and compromised versions). I’ll pause here to note that Katie “calls us” by these names, since we fairly constantly talk to each other using her fictional voice, which is loosely based on Eric Cartman. We’ve been doing this for more than 20 years now, across two dogs. Maybe we should do a masterclass?
After the Miss Sarah walk, she gets the obligatory Greenie, then a larger evening dose of pills. She’ll then generally chill until the bedtime routine begins.
8:30pm: Katie’s not allowed to sleep with us, but she gets to spend time on the bed each night for an hour or two. This is her Valhalla. Around 8pm or so, she senses that it’s time to begin the routine, and will try to round us (especially Sarah) up if we’re doing something else. The tension is palpable.
Once we’re in bed and watching something (or staring zombie-like at phones/books), she’ll either “climb aboard” Sarah (sit on her chest) if she’s feeling needy, or “spin and drop” (make eye contact, then turn around and sit by her side, facing the other way). If Sarah isn’t around, she’ll settle for “climb aboard” with me, but I’m always the JV option.
10:00-11:00pm (Approximately): After a specified amount of time (no idea exactly how long, but Katie absolutely knows), if I make any sudden moves, she’ll spring to life. At this point, things generally play out in one of three ways:
- If she hasn’t had enough “Miss Sarah time,” she’ll move near Sarah’s head and resist going into her “world.”
- If enough time has passed, she’ll move to the side of the bed where her “pet stairs” are located (to help her get up and down), then look at Sarah to confirm that it’s OK. If she gets the go-ahead, she’ll descend the pet stairs and head to her world.
- If she’s super tired, she’ll skip the Sarah approval and immediately descend the pet stairs.
Once in her world, she looks at the box of Milk Bones, and I’m required to grab one, say “here’s your cookie” and place it in her world. As noted above, she will not touch it until the morning routine begins.
Any deviation from the bedtime routine results in relentless scratching at the walls of her world. If all goes as planned, she falls into a deep slumber, ready to do it all again tomorrow!
House of Kyle 