Swirl’s Chewed Things: Awake

Hello. I am Swirl. I am an insomniac.

This is new.

I wake up in the dark and everybody is sleeping. The lady and the man and Punchy, well, not Punchy, because he’s always half-awake because he is so unbelievably nervous all of the time.

Anyway, I wake up and walk around a little and then I put my paws up on the bed right next to the man’s face and stand there on two legs until he wakes up and looks at me. This is different from when there’s a storm. Then I race back and forth a lot – into the bathroom, to the door, then to the bed. I have a circuit I run until the people turn on the lights and find my thunder shirt.

But this sleepless thing now is because I can’t stop thinking about something in the back yard. It’s extremely smelly and so I think about it all the time. It’s by the fence.

I wake up at night and I want to go by the fence and smell the thing that’s there.

And maybe poop.

I could live outside again and just lay down next to the fence and smell the thing that is there all night.

That’s probably out of the question at this stage of the game.

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Swirl is a 10-year-old retired sled dog who, until three years ago, lived outside with 200 other dogs at a mushing kennel in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. He has found his adjustment to indoor living somewhat uneven.