I wake up, look over, and she’s staring at me. Just waiting on me to show the first signs that it’s time to get up.

I blink.

The house is quiet. That quiet when everybody is still in bed. The quiet that’s almost loud. I look over at her again. Still waiting. Looking at me. Her eyes are deep.

Does that even make sense? Deep eyes? 

Well, hers are. And they speak louder and clearer than most people’s words. She knows me. And she’s patient with me in the mornings now. After 7 years of mornings, she’s patient. She lets me wake up slow. And I do because our toddler is still asleep and the house is still quiet. And she looks at me with her sweet, deep eyes that say,

“Hey mama, remember when it was just us?”

I reach over because I do remember. I scratch her ears. She’s wagging her tail, the kind of wag that shakes her whole body.  And then she’s scooting over. The belly crawl. Until she’s practically laying on top of me. She’s smothering me with all (almost) 80 pounds of her crazy lab self. And I take it because I know she misses it. Those slow wake up mornings when it was all about her.

All about Maggie.

And sometimes I do too.

So for a moment, in the quiet of our little house we pretend.

He’s watching me. So carefully. Waiting to see if I reach for my running shoes. Or pull my hair into a pony tail. Any signs that I might be going outside. I grab my shoes and he goes from a sweet, resting lab to a mad, Cujo-slobbering, ball-fetching maniac.

I. LOVE. it.

I love how passionate, ok crazy, he is about playing. He can hardly stay on his feet long enough to get to the back door. I throw his ball and he is in total puppy dog heaven. I could seriously watch him do this all day. He’s such an athlete.

Can dogs be athletes? Anyway, he’s running and jumping and loving every minute. And so am I. 

And when he settles down to rest, totally content, smiling from ear to ear, my Charlie makes me think about how awesome God is that He created both of us. It’s amazing what your dogs will teach you, if you listen.

And I also think,

There’s gotta be a place in heaven for dogs.