Change of Routine Required...

The morning routine at our house is...reach for eyeglasses (otherwise blindness ensues), get out of bed. Stumble to bathroom, then pause in kitchen to fill kettle and turn on. Head to door. Open said door, and let Lucy out. Gillis will be directly behind Lucy. Next, holler for Jasper, who is still lounging on the bed and doesn't want to go out. Put on warm jacket, gloves and boots, and throw hay over the fence to Buck and Rupert. Head back inside with all dogs. Make tea, feed dogs. Dogs then go back outside. If it's a workday, I get ready for work, and they stay out until just as I'm leaving...if not, they can come back in whenever is convenient, or whenever Gillis barks annoyingly to come back in.

Now this routine works just fine most of the time. The problem that has arisen is Gillis. Gillis adores cold weather, and loves snow the best. And when it's a cold, fine morning, he likes to go exploring. Unless he's within several feet of you, however, due to his ripe old age he's pretty much deaf as a post. And this morning, he was blythely off galavanting in the woods, and I was all dressed for work, uselessly calling and calling him. Work shoes were exchanged for boots, and I headed out to find him, but he was way out of earshot, and I could see him heading deeper and deeper into the forest.

I had to leave for work. Luckily Mike was still home, though ready to leave too, and he retrieved G and saved him from spending the morning outside at -16 degrees. Mike's not always here though, so things need to change a little over the winter months, if I'm not to be trekking through the forest every morning.

The second doggy outing of the morning is going to have to be "on leash" for the G-ster, otherwise he's going to be spending some long, lonely mornings outside.