Sleep changes

A typical evening routine years ago would be Kris would head to bed between 11:00 pm and midnight, and I would head to bed between around 12:30 am and 2:00 am. Bella would either have spent the evening snuggling one of us on the couch if we were working on the couch, sleeping in a dog bed on the office floor if we were in the office, or, most recently, sleeping in her bed in the Blue Room, having gone to bed around 9:00 pm or so.

Annie would be on the couch, ignoring all of us, sleeping until around 4:00 am. Invariably around four, she would wander back to the Blue Room, find the bed Bella was sleeping in, boot her out of the bed (at which point Bella would walk around the bed into the other dog bed on the other side), and fall asleep.

There used to be slight variations on the eventual location of the dogs, with Bella being in the bed snuggled in the crook of my curled legs, and Annie jumping onto the bed. Or Bella at the foot of the bed and Annie landing on her when she jumped onto the bed.

What didn't vary, however, was the 4:00 am shift. Annie never slept in the bedroom unless explicitly placed there by me or Kris.

With Bella's passing, Annie has shifted her sleeping habits. She now heads into the bedroom when Kris heads in. She starts the night sleeping in the dog bed on his side of the bed, and at some point shifts to the bed to snuggle with him.

I've always thought of Annie as the annoying dog. I will grudgingly admit, however, that she seems to sense Bella's absence and Kris' needs. She's not the emotional support doggie that Bella was, but she's doing her best with her limited skills.

• Log in to read full content