Golden Retrievers: A Day in the Life

Me:   For today’s entry, I asked the dogs to document their entire day.  Here is what they came up with!

Jeter:   12:00am – I am still with my mommy as she completes her work for the day.   I love to hang around with mommy, if you haven’t figured that out yet….

Alanis:  12:00am – I am in daddy’s office, sleeping.   The funny part about that is that he is actually downstairs.  I am in here all alone – as I have started to mature, I have shown a little more independence.

Josh:   12:00am – Simply put, I am done for the day, folks.  I am on the floor, trying to fall asleep as I type this.   I am older.  I sleep a lot.   I have arthritis, so I sleep a lot.    Perhaps there will be a post written about how a day in my life used to be – kind of like how This is Us does the time travel thing!

Jeter:  1:00am – My parents are weird.  They start watching their DVR’d shows at 1:00am.   That works for us a bit, because at 1:00am, we get treats!  Daddy eats some string cheese after midnight and always saves some for us.

Alanis:  1:00am – I love the string cheese.  Mommy also gives us a little treat around this time.  Mommy’s schedule is so interesting – she actually eats her dinner around 1:00am every morning…..this morning, she is eating a frozen dinner, corn, and some slow cooker macaroni and cheese.

Jeter:  1:15am – Time for Alanis and me to play.   We will play for a good 45 minutes around this time, though tonight I am thinking of cutting it a bit short.   Yep, I typically control the play time.  When I am done, I jump on the couch and curl into a ball.  Alanis may still try to get me to play more, and sometimes it actually does work.  I am a sucker for play….

Alanis 1:45am – Seems that Jeter is done for the day, so I am going to jump on the couch and go to sleep as well.

Jeter 3:30am – Jeopardy is over (due to my seizures, my parents mute Final Jeopardy!), so it is time for daddy to go to bed.  Mommy will stay up longer to do her thing while daddy goes to bed.    I will stay down here with her.

Alanis:  3:30am – I am a bit more erratic, but lately, I have stayed downstairs as well.  Sometimes, I will barge into the bedroom to lay by daddy.   I don’t have a set plan like Jeter does.

Josh:  9:30am – Time for breakfast!   I am the oldest, so I will get fed first.  One of my favorite parts of the day – though I don’t eat as much as I used to.

Jeter:  9:30am – Mommy gives me Rachel Ray dry and wet dog food.  I love all the varieties of the wet food.

Alanis: 9:30am – I only get the Rachel Ray dry.     Good stuff.  I also love the Earthborn when daddy brings that home.

Alanis:  9:45am – I will now go upstairs and lay in daddy’s office as he works.   Good time for a post-meal nap.

Jeter:  9:45am – I will often go behind a chair and take a nap around this time while mommy works out.

Alanis:  12:15pm – Daddy just got up!  I think it is time for our walk!   Let’s go!

Jeter:  12:19pm – He is coming downstairs – must be time for our walk!  I love going for walks.  It is one of my favorite activities.

Alanis & Jeter 1:20pm – We just got home from our 53 minute walk (according to Runkeeper, whatever that is).   Funny that daddy will now give us a treat…after taking us for a walk, which I thought may just be a treat by itself!

Alanis 1:30pm – I will now go lay in daddy’s office again for the rest of his work day….

Jeter 3:45pm – Time to go to bed with mommy!  She has such a weird schedule, but I love it.  I follow her into the room and lay down in the dog bed they have in there.

Alanis 5:05pm – Time for dinner!   I do this neat little trick where daddy says “Go get your brother”.  I have figured out how to open the bedroom door by the handle to let Jeter out of the room.

Josh 5:10pm – Here comes the cavalry!  I guess it is time for dinner   Lately, I have left some kibble over from breakfast and I just finish it off for dinner.  Old age does a lot to a dog.

Jeter 5:15pm – I don’t get the wet food for dinner.  Daddy is so lazy.  He just drops some dry food in a bowl and tells me to eat it.   Not that I ever turn it down.

Alanis 5:16pm – I am such a lunatic with my bowl.  It starts in the kitchen, and ends up in another random room.  I push it all over the place as I eat……

Jeter 5:35pm – I am done going to the bathroom, so guess where I go now?  Yep – back up to sleep with mommy!  Sometimes, daddy will play with us for a while before I go back to bed, but not today.  Mommy doesn’t even call me or anything – I just automatically go back upstairs and back to bed.

Alanis 5:40pm – This is usually the time where I show off some independence.  Sometimes, I will take a nap downstairs, sometimes I will go back upstairs.  Daddy usually does some sort of workout or walk around the house around this time.  It really is our quiet time in this house.

Alanis 6:00pm – Daddy is going to his favorite place for dinner!   He really is a high-end kind of guy – going out to dinner every Friday night in his suit.  Actually, he goes to WaWa (it is an East Coast thing) to get a sandwich while in his pajama pants.  Damn, if I was a child instead of a dog, he would be so embarrassing.

Jeter 6:05pm –  Even as a dog, I find him embarrassing more times than not…

Alanis 6:06pm – LOL.

Alanis 11:30pm – Time for daddy to go downstairs and do some walking in circles (what a weird man – he does it for his FitBit counts.  I have never seen anyone take enjoyment in doing such a mundane thing.  And he will keep walking until Mommy comes downstairs.

Me:   Dogs have such a fun existence, don’t they?  They eat, they play, they sleep.     That is the summary of everything above.   Since it is a weekend night, Colleen sleeps a bit longer, since she doesn’t have to do work.   Typically, Jeter would get up with her around 11:00pm for that purpose.  I think this post actually illustrates something else about dogs and being a dog lover:  Nothing about the above is really all that exciting in the grand scheme of things.   But we wouldn’t really want it any other way.