Letting Sleeping Dogs Lie

As you may remember from last week, I was talking about "sleeping like a dog" and how that phrase seems to make more sense to me that "sleeping like a log."

Well, there's a reason why we've been spending a lot of time watching the dog sleep at our house, lately.

Ever since the pup has been home from her 36 hours in the ICU, Christopher and I have been tasked with watching her sleep and counting the number of breaths she takes per minute while at rest.

The optimum number of breaths per minute would be less than 30. She averages around 32 when we're counting. Which isn't perfect, but it isn't too bad. (For reference: When we took her to the ER that morning, she was breathing at an astronomically high rate of 120 breaths per minute.)

There is something very zen about watching a dog sleep. Almost more than with watching a person (which is sometimes referred to as "creepy" or "stalker-ish"). After all, as a dog, she's hyper alert to everything around her, even when you think she's completely out of it. So you have to be very quiet and still while watching her so that you don't wake her up. (Because, of course, a sudden awakening results in a spike in quicker breaths.)

Yes, one of her favorite places to sleep is on the back of the couch.
We gave up on keeping the cushions looking good ages ago.

So every so often one or the other of us will kind of zone out and stare at the dog and watch her breathe. Yes, there is a little anxiety in that (hoping that the time ticks by before she hits that 30-breath mark), but mostly it's very peaceful.

I highly recommend it - though I don't recommend the anxiety part.