... and here I sit typing because Savannah has been barking on and off since midnight. One bark here, one bark there, and about a dozen barks just a little while ago. Puppy pay-back. Didn't we just tell our young friend Corey that Savannah has been sleeping through the nights now and not waking us up for every train whistle and coyote howl that she hears after midnight?
And speaking of our friend Corey, Savannah didn't exactly welcome her with open paws and a wagging tail this morning. I've known Corey since she was a little girl in a second-grade classroom and I was her reading tutor. Now Corey is 24 and she has a horse and a car and a boyfriend and a job (not exactly in that order of importance). Corey was ready to get down on the floor and play with Savannah as soon as she walked into the door, but this puppy was having none of that today. Savannah stayed in her bed in the corner of the breakfast room and except for a bark or two in Corey's direction, this Puppy Princess kept her distance.
After lunch today, and then again after dinner, Corey and I walked up and down our road with Savannah. I thought that maybe Savannah would feel more comfortable with Corey after walking with her for a while. Savannah just ignored Corey for the first walk, but then during the second walk Savannah started wagging her tail and smelling Corey's jeans and boots and she looked like she wanted to play but she just wouldn't let herself go. Then we got back into the house and Savannah gave Corey some good growls and barks as if she'd never seen her before in her entire puppy life.
After dinner tonight, the three of us were sitting in the living room and we decided to exchange our Christmas gifts. Savannah had spent most of the day in the breakfast room (her choice, not mine) so my husband put her leash on her and brought her into the living room with us. Savannah seemed comfortable enough, as long as she stayed near my husband, and she watched us open gifts and she stopped growling and barking and she sat there like a happy puppy. Before Corey went to the guest cottage for the night, Savannah gave her another bark or two, just to remind Corey who was the Number One Puppy around here. Sometimes I wonder if Savannah's reluctance to make peace with our friends and neighbors is her way of keeping everyone else at a distance and keeping my husband and I all to herself.
When I came downstairs a little while ago, I put Savannah's leash on her and took her outside because I thought her excessive barking since we went upstairs meant that she wanted a little visit out to the grass. Wrong decision on my part. Savannah started picking up leaves and twigs and then she began walking in slow motion with her head down... her signal that she didn't want to be out there in the first place and how dare I bring her outside in the middle of this foggy night.
Back inside we came, and I took that leash off Savannah and told her to Go to sleep and don't make another blasted sound till the sun comes up!
By then I was wide awake. Nothing to do but start typing because had I gone upstairs and gotten back in that bed right away all these words would have been circling around in my head and I would have been tossing and turning.
Right this minute, Savannah is sound asleep and looking like an innocent well-behaved puppy. (Which she is, most of the time.) I'm hoping that when I close this lap-top and go back upstairs I won't hear one bark out of her when I put my head down on that pillow.
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