midsummer night

A word to the wise: having animals and small children at the same time will drive you insane.

When you and your other are pre-children, taking care of your animals is second nature. They are, after all, your first children. Of course you respond to their barks and meows most promptly and take care of them properly. Add a small human to the mix and well...

last night I didnt' get much sleep. Jasmine has this thing about the wind. Actually, Jasmine has a thing about most things. She has issues. Not that one can blame her, I mean, she was abandoned as a puppy and left for dead but she's like 42 in dog years now. Don't our last 4 years of steady care for her equal canine therapy? If we haven't let the wind get her yet, it's unlikely it will happen. Those I suppose uprooting her from #1 to #2 after Raelin arrived was a bit jarring, to say the least.

But i digress.

So, she has a thing about the wind. If our windows are open at night and there's a breeze (thank god, because it's been non-stop hot here) she hangs out by (my, i might add) side of the bed and pants. and pants. and clicks and shifts her claws on the hardwood and pants some more. Excessive commands to lay down only intensify the shuffling. So, swearing profusely, I close the window and throw off the covers. ( i need covers, regardless of the heat. even a sheet will do. it's a thing with me.) so Jasmine finally calms down and then Raelin wakes up. I'm on night duty now since kevin has been working like 25 hours a day. so i go and pat her back and she goes back to sleep. i return to bed.

i notice that jasmine is not in the room and figure that perhaps she got a burst of courage and is actually lying down by herself in the living room. i fall asleep.

I wake up abruptly to the sound of Jasmine barking. outside. ugh! fucking dog!

She is not in the living room. her burst was not of courage but of mischief. She went down to the basement and nosed open the slider. I stumble outside, in the buff, and whistle several times. Nothing. I hiss her name. Nothing. Swearing more, i thump to the basement and call her name and whistle out the slider. Crashing throught the woods. Yes, that would be her. I whistle a few more times. By the time she is in my line of sight, she is slinking. i all but kick her through the door. She follows (I can practically feel the satisfaction of her midnight romp) obediently and collapses on her bed.

It's 2:30. I manage to fall back asleep.

Oh, and have i mentioned that my husband is a gimp and so through all of this he is in bed with his foot elevated?

Raelin wakes up again. i trudge to her room with my pillow and crawl into bed with her, or rather around her since she's lying horizontal.

Just as i am falling asleep, the other starts. Not jasmine- reggie. Meowing- loudly, beseechingly- from the now shut basement door.

Fucking cat!!!

I get up to let him in. He doesn't want to be let in, he wants to be fed and the crumbs from the afternoon snack are not good enough. I shake some kibble into his dish and shut the door.

As long as I am up- now at 3:30- I drink some water before going back to bed. I manage to sleep about an hour and a half before Raelin begins to stir and begins the morning nursing marathon that allows me to doze to the blessed hour of 6 am when she starts dragging toys and books to the bed and suggesting that i get up and make pancakes.

I am still doing the dishes from dinner when a nurse from our insurance agency knocks on the door- 30 minutes early, i might add- at 6:20 am to get blood draws from kevin and i.

the animals continue to sleep, crashed out on the livingroom floor.