My Dog, My Co-Worker

Right now I'm spending a truly depressing amount of time retouching and editing. Seriously, I had an editing marathon from last Friday morning until Sunday night. Today I got a bit of a break for a doctor's appointment and a freelance assignment. Woot. (A break from work to do... a different kind of work!) Arg.

Anyway, my dog is my constant companion. She mostly sleeps beside me and truth be told, I sit around in sweatpants right next to her and play with her floppy ears while giant 60 MB files open and render and whatnot. She intermittantly emits odors, which is less fun.

The silent-but-deadly dog farts are actually NOT the most annoying thing. We have a few hours every day where she gets off the couch, just to ask to get right back on. Quick backstory: Bella is a packleader personality. She's an Alpha girl. When she was about 2 and a half, she starting copping an attitude and we had to revisit obedience training. The main change for her was that she no longer had unfettered access to the couch and the bed. She slowly earned back her bed privileges, but she sleeps at our feet (at the bottom of the pack.)

But ever since, she has had to "ask" for permission to get up on the couch. She sits on the floor right next to the couch and either looks at me or paws the cushion a few times and waits for me to say, "You're invited" and/or "Up up up" while patting the cushion. I like the companionship honestly, but she spends at least one hour every day being... annoying.

She wants up; she wants down. She wants back up. She wants to lick my hand; she wants to lick my empty pudding cup. She wants to lick her foot, she wants to use her foot to scratch her ears and then she headbutts ME to scratch her ears. She flips on her back and wants a belly rub (gladly!) She wants the left cushion; then she gets down and wants to sit on the right cushion so she paws to get back up. She stands up, turns 180 degrees and lays back down.

If I take a bathroom break, Fred jumps up and lays on my warm laptop and pretends to be sound asleep when I get back. Sorry, cat: you did not fall into a deep, deep sleep in the time it took me to pee and grab another Diet Snapple. I move Fred to the side, and then Bella wants to sit next to *him,* but that involves hopping down and then asking for permission to get back up by pawing the couch to sit on the other side. If Joel joins me to watch a movie, she wants to sit next to him, then she wants me. Then she wants to sit between us, which means she paws our knees sitting side by side until we make room for her between us. (Gladly!)

And then, just when the annoying pawing of the cushions hits a fever pitch, she falls asleep. She snores. She chases squirrels in her sleep. She lays her head on Fred. She lays her head on me. She is the best co-worker ever.