{"id":7942,"date":"2015-07-27T03:42:40","date_gmt":"2015-07-27T08:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/?p=7942"},"modified":"2015-07-25T07:11:10","modified_gmt":"2015-07-25T12:11:10","slug":"doctor-stormy-at-your-service-sleep-deprivation-our-specialty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/?p=7942","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Stormy At Your Service: Sleep Deprivation Our Specialty!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes animals have names that fit them perfectly. Barky Barkerson might be a good one for my little friend. Stormy? Perhaps the most unlikely name you could pick for this little dog.<\/p>\n

\"She<\/a>

She gets to nap…<\/p><\/div>\n

Please follow me on Twitter<\/a>, and “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

Thursday night we had thunderstorms in the Twin Cities. I can safely say that they started around 2:40 that morning. That’s because the breathing started about then. Breathing. As in “Wake from a sound sleep with a sheep dog standing two feet away breathing heavily and loudly.” I thought for a minute that the ghost of our Old English was back: he specialized in breathing loudly when he wanted your attention. It’s not possible that a 35 pound dog could make the same level of noise that a 90 pound dog could, is it?<\/p>\n

Why, yes, it is! When the exhalation festival didn’t get sufficient attention she moved to plan “B” – paws on the bed, her face six inches from mine.<\/p>\n

Stormy doesn’t like to be held or comforted like other dogs I’ve known. Instead of hopping on the bed and being safe, she prefers pacing. So pace she did. Me? I rolled back on my side and went back to sleep. For 11 minutes. <\/p>\n

The breathing was back. Given my bad hearing and the ambient noise in the room with the fans, that’s pretty amazing. But I rubbed her face, said soothing words, and turned to face the wall.<\/p>\n

This time it was more like 8 minutes. This went on from 2:40 until about 5:40 when I threw in the towel and got up to make breakfast. We hit the back door just in time to catch the last of the rain. <\/p>\n

She, being very tired from her activity, took a nap while I made something to eat. I left a little early for work and stopped for two enormous caffeinated sodas, a 24 ounce coffee, and a package of caffeine stimulant pills at my favorite gas station.<\/p>\n

For the next 10 hours I consumed all the buzz drink and pills I could stomach, finally hitting a decent level of alertness around hour 7. She, on the other hand, was at home barking and snoozing.<\/p>\n

I can’t be mad. She’s terrified of the noise from thunderstorms. But can’t she show this anxiety by passing out? I need the sleep.<\/p>\n

********* ********** *********** ***********<\/p>\n

I have a favor to ask of my readers: would you kindly share this blog with your friends, family, and colleagues? We hit a million views in 2014, and while the readership continues a nice growth trend, it could be a lot better. Just hit the Facebook like button, share it on your timeline, tweet the blog with a link, and tell that person at the next desk that there’s this lunatic who writes about all sorts of stuff that they might like. <\/p>\n

I appreciate your help. When we hit 2,000,000 readers I will give away something cool to a drawing from the subscribers (that’s the box on the right toward the top) who have helped promote this mess. No used sheets, probably not honey, more likely gift cards. Be a part of it. I’ll update from time to time where we’re at in the count. Thanks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes animals have names that fit them perfectly. Barky Barkerson might be a good one for my little friend. Stormy? Perhaps the most unlikely name you could pick for this little dog. Please follow me on Twitter, and “Like” the …<\/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":[2292,1],"tags":[2817,4447,167,162,4448,642,4449,4450,61,1233,1994,671],"class_list":["post-7942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stormy-2","category-uncategorized","tag-anxiety","tag-caffeine","tag-commotion-in-the-pews","tag-joseph-courtemanche","tag-loud-noises","tag-old-english-sheepdog","tag-pacing","tag-sheep-dog","tag-sheltie","tag-stormy","tag-thunderstorm","tag-twin-cities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7942","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=7942"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8626,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7942\/revisions\/8626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}