Our dog, Carmen, and I have a morning routine that hasn’t changed in the past three years.  It’s pretty much the same, no matter the season, or the weather. It can be a regular day, Christmas Day, or raining cats and dogs, it doesn’t matter. This is what happens.

Everyday we wake up between 6:30 and 7:00AM.  Somedays I’m up first, somedays she wakes me, but always in that same timeframe.  (If I’m not home, she never wakes Cathy, but instead waits for her to get up). As I dress, she stretches a time or two and then sits and waits by the bedroom door.  I open the door and we head downstairs, Carmen leading the way.  I proceed to the back door, where she’s waiting for me.  I slip on my shoes, open the door, and out we go.  Interestingly, if I let her out, but then go back inside to do something for a minute, I’ll find her sitting just outside the back door waiting for me (“Let’s go dad, what’s up?”).

As we proceed to the barn, Carmen will do her business along the way.  Typically our barn cats, Stan and Ollie, will say hello and the four of us make our way to the barn for feeding time.  In the summertime, the horses have been out for the night and are waiting to come in (in winter, the horses have been in the stable all night and are ready to go out).  

At the barn, I fill each horse’s bucket with water and throw some hay in their stalls.  Carmen wanders the barn and checks things out to make sure nothing has changed from the day before, and also to see if the cats have left any food around their bowls.  We then walk to the feed room to get grain for the horses and the dry food for the cats.  As I am about to return to the barn, I look at Carmen and she sits down in the feed room. I close the door.  She knows that she’s not allowed out while I bring the horses in.

I put the feed in each stall’s bucket, give the cats their food, and then go for the horses.  Noggin’ and ‘Shendo come in first from the nearby paddock, and then it’s Sailor and Katie’s turn from the backfield.  Once all of the horses are in, I let Carmen out of the feed room and we head back up the drive.  

Instead of going straight to the house, I walk the 100 yards or so up the driveway to the mailbox and retrieve the Washington Post.  Carmen doesn’t follow me, but instead lays down in the driveway about two feet inside the invisible fence.  When  I come back from getting the paper, she is invariably waiting for me there.  I come over the hill, she stays put.  I walk down the hill, she stays put.  Finally, when I cross the invisible fence line myself, she jumps up and trots to the back door of the house.

We go inside, and I fill her bowl with food.  As she is munching down, I go to the kitchen, make my coffee, check email, and proceed to read the Post.

Our days diverge after that and we both get on with our lives.  Sometimes we are doing things together, but other than our afternoon walk, often times not.  I like to think that we are comfortable with each other in our friendship.  I know both of us enjoy our morning ritual together.  It’s something we can count on and look forward to, come what may.

It’s a pretty good start to the day. What’s yours look like?