Saturday night was slightly exhausting in the McNeely house. It started out promising. Kiera went to bed a little later than her scheduled bedtime but it was Saturday night, not a school night.
I watched a little television with Aaron and once I was sure he wouldn’t laugh at me, I went to bed to read. Let me just clarify. He doesn’t laugh because I am going to bed to read. He laughs because it is a Saturday night and I am crawling in bed about 9. But, I digress.
Aaron came to bed soon and watched some videos on his tablet and I found a comfortable position and went to sleep. It was perfect. Was being the key word.
Around midnight, Ziggy and Sloane prodded me with their noses to let me know they would like to go outside. Let me give you a little information about our two monsters.
Sloane is a Char-pei/Lab mix. She is about 9 years old and weighs around 40 pounds. Sloane is the main protector. She lets us know immediately if someone is close to the house. At the same time, she is very gentle with us. When she wants to wake me up, she will gently prod my hand with her nose or give a slight whine.Ziggy is a 70-pound boxer and about 3 years old. He is also protective of us but he loves to cuddle. Ziggy has no concept of personal space. If I do not wake up after the first prod of his nose, he puts both front paws on my chest and leans his nose down to my face. Now, that’s the way to wake up in the middle of the night.
After they woke me up, I stumbled out of bed like normal and let them out. Within a few minutes, they were back in the house and settled into their favorite sleeping position on the couch. I climbed back in bed and quickly went back to sleep.
A short time later, I awoke to the rumblings of thunder. I knew immediately what to expect. You see, our huge, tough Boxer is terrified of thunder. When it storms at night, he heads to the safety of our bed.
Ziggy will climb into bed between Aaron and I and curl up to one of us. Usually, the only way to calm him down is to tuck him up against my body, his head lying on my arm and cover him tightly with a blanket.
Between the rumbles of thunder, I heard Ziggy’s dog tags jingle as he jumped off the couch and fled to our room. He army crawled his way up to me and sat on his haunches. I reached up and pulled him down to comfort him before realizing I didn’t have an extra blanket.
As the thunder grew louder, I knew I was going to have to get up and find a blanket. I woke Aaron so that he could hold Ziggy while I ventured into Kiera’s room to grab one. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement on her bed.
I glanced to Kiera and noticed that she had pulled her Frozen Elsa blanket over her head. In fact, Elsa’s face was the only thing I could see. “Kiera?” I asked quietly, checking to see if she was indeed awake.
“I’m scared,” she whispered back. I patted her little body and assured her that everything was going to be fine. I was surprised that she had woken up. She usually sleeps through storms.
“Will you sleep with me?” she asked, still hiding under her blanket.
“Yes, baby,” I replied. “Let me take this to Daddy and I will be right back.”
I quickly carried the blanket to Aaron so he could wrap the other frightened baby that was huddled up in our room. “I’ll be back. You take care of this one and I’ll go take care of Kiera,” I said as I handed the blanket over.
It didn’t take long of lying beside Kiera before she was fast asleep. I crept back to my room, where I dragged Ziggy back to the middle of the bed and away from my poor husband who was sweating from Ziggy’s added body heat.
I made sure Ziggy was tucked in and I drifted back to sleep.
A very short while later, I heard, “Mommy?” coming from beside me. I pried my eyes open enough to see Kiera’s shape standing beside the bed.
“Can you take me potty?” she asked sleepily.
I grabbed my phone for a flashlight and traipsed off to the bathroom behind her. “Will you come lay down with me?” she asked after washing her hands.
“Yes, baby,” I agreed as I once again headed for her bed. I covered her with her blanket and she asked for a glass of milk. As I turned to stumble to the kitchen, I heard the rumble of thunder and then the jingle of dog tags. Before I could process what was going on, Ziggy jumped on Kiera’s bed and laid his head on her ankles.
Kiera sat up to look at Ziggy who was looking at both of us with wide eyes. “He’s scared, baby,” I explained. “Can you protect him while I get your milk?”
She agreed and placed her hand on him as she lay back on her bed. I dragged my sleepy self to the kitchen, prepared a glass of milk and headed back to Kiera’s room. Once she was finished with her milk, she quickly fell back to sleep.
I, on the other hand, was now faced with the prospect of trying to get Ziggy off Kiera’s ankles and back to our bed without waking her. Thankfully, it only took a few minutes to coax him down and back to our bed where I went back through the steps of getting him calmed down, covered up and settled in.
With one arm under Ziggy’s head and the other tossed over his body to calm him, I said a quick prayer that Kiera would sleep in and dozed off to my peaceful dog-cuddling slumber.
I’m so thankful for Sunday afternoon naps.
Rowonna McNeely is a graphic artist for Willie’s T’s Screenprint & Embroidery. She is a mother of a five-year-old girl and step mother of two adult girls. Her crazy life includes a dog, Sloane and psychotic cat, Gracie. Both females. She is married to her prince, who is outnumbered by the opposite gender.
