One Saturday morning, my family had gone out for the day leaving me and the dog home to enjoy the peace and quiet. We both had breakfast, watched TV together, and then I went to grab a long, relaxing, uninterrupted shower.
Work had been very busy that week. Big projects to complete, papers to grade, issues to be resolved. But it was OK, because I knew that SATURDAY would be MY day to relax and shake off stress. I love my family and enjoy spending time with them, but I was also looking forward to some peace and quiet. Perhaps you, too, can relate. If you work in a job that involves other people, work sometimes just gets messy and leads to stress that can follow you out the door at the end of the day. Going home can add a different level of interaction that over time has you craving a moment of silence. Well Saturday was MY moment of silence.
In preparation for my relaxing shower, I grabbed my fuzzy robe, hung it up in the bathroom, and then placed several bottles of lotions and potions on the counter. The music was turned on low and I got the shower temperature just right. Homemade spa shower, here I come.
I stood for a while just enjoying the warm water. I soaped up my hair with the special shampoo that would give my hair that “lovely glow and fresh scent.” Just as I had worked up a good lather, the dog barked.
Now if you are a dog owner, or have ever visited someone who owns a dog, you know that the dog bark has different meanings. There’s the “come play with me” bark. The “I have to go outside” bark. The “I’m barking in my sleep” bark. Then there’s the “someone is breaking into the house and I’m going to rip them from limb to limb” bark.
You guessed it. The dog used her “someone is breaking into the house” bark. As a dog owner, that bark usually makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up and your adrenaline begins to flow.
So there I stood in the shower, head soaped up with the special “Saturday by myself” shampoo, knowing that someone was in the house. I knew that it wasn’t anyone from the family, because that bark is more like “hey, you’re home!” so I sprang into self-protection mode. I thought, what do I have in the bathroom that I could use to fight off an intruder? Then I remembered in a movie, someone spayed hairspray in the intruders eyes to save themselves. No problem. I can do that.
I peeked my soapy head out from behind the curtain only to see that there was NO hairspray. Oh, that’s right. I had used it up the day before and didn’t replace it. No problem. There must be some other aerosol can in the bathroom. I quickly thought through all of the options. Nope nothing. Darn the 1970’s environmentalists. Aerosol cans kill the ozone layer, so now we have pump bottles. I haven’t seen the pump bottle, intruder-battling technique in a movie.
Keep in mind that all of those thoughts took place in about a minute. Given no true means to battle an intruder, I rinsed off, wrapped my hair in a bath towel, and donned my fluffy robe. Stepping out of the shower, I put my hand on the door knob and quietly opened the door. I was fully prepared to face down the intruder in MY home.
As the door opened, I quickly glanced around the room looking for said intruder. What did I find? The dog……….sound asleep on the bed. Yep, her alarming, “I’m going to rip you from limb to limb” bark must have been a false alarm. She just forgot to tell her owner that critical, lifesaving fact.
As you can imagine, I wanted to yell at her for scaring the hell out of me during my SATURDAY shower, but I couldn’t do it. She looked sooooo cute curled up in a ball, sound asleep. That may seem like a strange reaction to a scary event, but I am that crazy dog person who thinks her dog is just the cutest thing ever, especially when she is sleeping.
So I sat down on the bed next to her and thought to myself, what is the Tinkering With Success moment here? Well the answers are: 1. to never run out of hairspray in the bathroom and 2. keep my cell phone handy. I’m glad that I have a dog who would protect me from intruders. However, the next time I decide to take a relaxing spa shower during a quiet Saturday, I’ll have to loop the dog in on my plans. Or better yet, I could take her to the kennel for her own spa day. Hmmm, I think I’ll call and book THAT kennel appointment right now.
BLT