Midnight Awakening: What's a hound to do?

Since it gets dark so early here in the Pacific Northwest, and stays dark in the morning, I sleep a lot! Yesterday it was grey, misty and rainy and I didn't have a lot of energy so I slept. But all that sleeping gives me a bit of extra energy... at Midnight!

So I've started waking up at night and thinking about what to do. The house is quiet. There is no one to talk to so I think...

- Shall I check out the noisy cats who are out on the street at night?
- Shall I check one more time and see if the squirrel is in my backyard?
- Shall I count my toys? Red toy, Green toy, Blue Ball, Chaser toy, Brown toy (I only have 5!)
- Shall I try for a midnight snack?
- Shall I check the Urban Coonhounds Facebook site?
- Shall I check my e-mail?
- Shall I have an urgent need to go to the outhouse?

How about all of the above! So what I do is I get up, yawn and stretch and then shake from tail to nose and really make my ears flap. That wakes up my owner. Then I run downstairs like a thundering herd of horses to make sure my owner gets up. Then she goes downstairs and opens the back door for me. Piece of cake!

I went outside last night and it wasn't raining. It was actually nice and mild out... no wind, dark skies. Everything smelled so fresh and damp. I nosed around the yard for awhile checking for the scent of squirrels or cats. Nope, they hadn't been there. So I went back inside and ran back up to bed.

Another Midnight awakening accomplished!

Love, Cinnamon the sleepy hound