{"id":6553,"date":"2014-01-02T12:42:14","date_gmt":"2014-01-02T18:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/?p=6553"},"modified":"2014-01-02T11:54:24","modified_gmt":"2014-01-02T17:54:24","slug":"shes-more-popular-than-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/?p=6553","title":{"rendered":"She’s More Popular Than Me."},"content":{"rendered":"

The dog. Stormy. Every time I write about Stormy my statistics go through the roof. I get a ton of emails. The dog wags her tail. With nothing but good journalism in mind, I present another Stormy story.<\/p>\n

Please follow me on Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0“Like” the Facebook author page<\/a>. Don’t forget to subscribe (the box is on the right side of the page) to be eligible for free e-books and other benefits!<\/p>\n

The last few weeks have played havoc with my sleep pattern. Between extra hours in the Santa suit and my work schedule being a train wreck due to the holidays (I’m forced by the joys of a seniority system in which I have none to take the middle of the week off when it’s a holiday.)

\"Just<\/a>

Just another random desert photo.<\/p><\/div> I Can’t decide what day it is or when to sleep. Consequently the poor dog is unable to predict when I’m going to be home, if I’m going upstairs to change for work or crawl between the sheets. When it’s summer weather I use those transition days to get up super early, eat breakfast, and write or take a walk. When it’s -13 (like today) I pull the blankets up tighter and sleep about 15 hours instead. <\/p>\n

This morning Stormy had had enough and woke me up at 0700. Fine, needed to get up anyway. After watching her dance around on the super-cold sidewalk we each had breakfast. She had a dog biscuit and I had a Cliff Bar<\/a>. Kind of the same level of treat, we both like them better than cereal\/kibble. But before we got to the morning menu, I sat down to watch some television. <\/p>\n

Much to my surprise she hopped up on the couch with me. That’s happened more often of late. She never sticks around terribly long. Today was the break in the pattern I’ve been waiting for this past year. Once she was done nibbling the pillows, she swung around and laid next to me, head on my leg. For the next 1.5 hours I gently rubbed her nose, her side, her legs, and rested my hand on her. She snoozed. <\/p>\n

If you’ve ever had a rescue dog in your life you will recognize this as a big step. She let her guard down and just wanted to be loved. I didn’t dare move the entire time. Only when the stomach grumbling kicked in did I get up for our treats. <\/p>\n

Thank you, Jesus, for softening her heart and building her trust. It was the best morning we’ve had yet. And it’s early days in this love affair.

\"Breakthroughs<\/a>

Breakthroughs are wonderful.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The dog. Stormy. Every time I write about Stormy my statistics go through the roof. I get a ton of emails. The dog wags her tail. With nothing but good journalism in mind, I present another Stormy story. Please follow …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2836,167,2838,137,140,75,162,120,2839,61,63,2837,1233,460],"class_list":["post-6553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cliff-bar","tag-commotion-in-the-pews","tag-desert","tag-god","tag-holiday","tag-jesus","tag-joseph-courtemanche","tag-santa-claus","tag-seniority","tag-sheltie","tag-shetland-sheep-dog","tag-sleep","tag-stormy","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6553"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6562,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6553\/revisions\/6562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}