The Call of Taco Bell

DONG!!!!!!!!       “I could have went to Taco Bell” !?!

That is what we hear every night at about 4:15 in the morning.  It’s not exactly Taco Bell, but it is definitely the same sound from their commercials a good decade ago and they are open at that time…. 

And it does, as it was supposed to do in the commercials - catch you attention and wake you up (in the original case - to the need for Taco Bell).  This sound in our room is also to get our attention and to wake us up – but the need is different, it’s for the dog – who wants to go outside and maybe if she is annoying enough – could she also get a bite to eat?  It is after all, time for “Fourth Meal”.

This four in the morning stuff started right about the time of the change for daylight savings (again, the need for this is what now in the 21^st century)?  The dog used to get up around six, with the alarm and be perfectly happy to go outside and eat then, but when the time changed, she got a little messed up.

We thought she would eventually adjust – but nope – it’s pretty much 4:22 in the morning, regularly – or at least that is the time the microwave shows on the way through the kitchen to the back door.  I don’t think it’s lying….

The DONG!!!!!!! You ask?  Well, what we have is a pretty smart dog.   

Just her waking up and clomping around, all the while tripping over my husband’s shoes, is enough to get us to stir – but not enough to get us to react.  So, on my husband’s side of the bed there is a lovely little metal trash bucket.  A nice heavy duty enamel covered thing with chrome trim, good quality – if it were cheap it just wouldn’t have the same effect.

This dog of ours has two shiny metal tags hanging from her collar and if she walks up to said trash bucket and bumps these two little inch round tags into it – the reverberating sound is a very, very loud DONG!!!!!!  

The first one startles you out of a sleep – the second DONG sets you bolt upright – and the third one gets the husband out of bed to tend to the sheep, I mean the dog.  The nice part is for me is, she goes to him for this middle of the night activity – if there was anything nice about being woken up – EVERY NIGHT- at four AM.  Maybe she tried my plastic trash bucket and got nothing, so on to his side it was.

We do take turns letting her out, but she really prefers to hang with my husband in the morning, so he gets the majority of this four o’clock “fun”.  On the days I do to take her out, I have to stumble over to his side of the bed and physically get her; she won’t come to me on her own.

Nope, to hubby’s dismay – he is the chosen one.

Unfortunately what has progressed is she likes to go out three times, once to piddle, once to poop, and once to see if you now thinks it’s snack time and could she have that bite to eat when she comes back in?  After all she just sniffed the entire yard out and cleared it completely of any bunny “predators”.  

The third time is the killer – we always knew of the double go out, so you stand there and wait until she’s ready to head back out the door to finish up her business – but the third time?  Hubby is generally curled back up in bed – heading back to lala land for another hour and a half.

DONG!!!!!! DONG!!!!!! DONG!!!!!

We don’t go to Taco Bell as much as we used to anymore – I guess we have become impervious to the call……