Today was the fifth morning in a row my dog woke me up and would not let me go back to sleep. He implored me to get out of bed and take him for a walk. He is subtle at first. He begins by pacing around the bedroom yawning loudly. Each yawn leading into a small yelp. Typically, he sees no reaction from me and steps it up a notch by softly whining until he sees movement. The scene escalates once I look at my phone for the time. At this point he knows I’m alive and awake and now nothing will stop him until my feet hit the floor. I can’t pull the blankets over my head because he will just paw at my face beneath the sheets. In his excitement he’ll change tactics and jumps off the bed poking his wet nose under the blanket, aggressively sniffing to see how awake I truly am. Seeing I have no choice but to be annoyed I get up. Now he knows he’s got me.