Today was a whole 5 degrees warmer than yesterday. The dogs, being dogs, didn’t care. They had decided that the earliest morning hours were the best for harassing me. Harass they did.

I must preface this with some context. One thirty am is not an appropriate hour to need to go outside. Neither is three thirty am. It makes believing them at five thirty am a little difficult.

As stated before, early mornings give me an allergic reaction. I get grumpy and remain that way until I find hot coffee.

But there is a certain activity that gives me great joy in that ridiculous hour. But first there are the chores of sending them outside, feeding  and reattaching their behavior collars and sending them out again, and, finally, letting them back in so they can rest from all of my activities.

While they are outside, I get to make that wonderful elixir called coffee. Oh, yes…

Once inside, they rest for a few minutes, snoozing on their couch. They are gathering energy to harass me.  From muzzle nudges to full on whining, they finally get their way and I prepare to head to the dog run.

Today, I had no excuses. It was five degrees warmer. The tennis balls were not frozen and there was a slim chance, according to Gracie, that a lizard just might be in that tree.

They waited patiently by the deck gate. Well, they were patient because I had the tennis balls. You will note that they are NOT looking at me. Their attention is on those yellow orbs that I hold.

Their first stop is the lizard tree. It really isn’t a stop. It is a full on running assault with hope of surprising a poor reptile. The use of the magical yellow orbs allowed me to capture them near said tree.

And on to the run. Once I open the gate, the race is on. Feathers and ears fly and the chase for the yellow orbs begins.

But soon they settle down to their favorite pastimes- rooting for acorns and ball hogging.

Just so we are abundantly clear, I was wearing my slippers.