THE DOG WHO CAME TO BREAKFAST

For some reason I’ve been waking about 4 a.m. for the past week. I blame the time change. Or, maybe, the malfunctioning burglar alarm at a business across the thoroughfare at the western end of the block.
Or maybe my own lingering insomnia. Like that burglar alarm, it can go off at any time.
Whatever the reason, we’d prefer that the alarm and the world in general Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap. Let ol’ insomniacs snooze, too. 
This edition is dedicated to people whose nocturnal companions are dogs and cats.
Yep, dogs and cats. We're paying tribute to people who understand the joy of waking in the night and reaching out to pet a dog or a cat who needs assurance that everything’s good in life.
To illustrate this theory of human goodness, I’ll engage our former street dog, Porche Noel. As we’ve explained before, she gets her name because, on the morning of December 15, 2009, she showed up on our front porch. Front porch at Christmas, ergo Porche Noel.
You see above a photo of her arriving at the vet’s office with me the day she showed up on the porch. You can count her ribs. Her hip is clearly not healthy. But those ears are perked.
She was young. Looking back I explained that I’d heard a clamor on the usually quiet front porch that morning. Smidge the Feral Black Cat usually slept-in on the heating pad we kept in her camping chair. But there was noise, the sound of aluminum dishes bouncing on cement. And when I opened the door, Smidge wasn’t there!

That noise? In the past such noises had been caused by raccoons, possums and, once, an adventurous skunk.  Caught that one one in a cat trap on the porch -- I was trying to catch feral kittens. Fortunately we all escaped without “setting off the skunk” and I think you know what I mean. 
So, when I opened the door that morning, there was this dog.
She was starving. She was so thin she could squeeze through the bars on the porch gate -- but after she'd cleaned out the food left from the morning cat food buffet, she was suddenly too ‘thick” to squeeze her belly back through the bars.

Our vet, Dr. Vladi de Jong, diagnosed all the stuff she was suffering. Primarily she needed to be fed.
And, maybe, her limping would diminish the healthier she got, he said, and, probably, she'd learn to bark without rasping -- it was like she’d been tethered her entire life and the tight collar had damaged her vocal cords.
[LARRY ASIDE: As I’m writing this, I am moved to mention how much we miss our visits with Vladi -- he died Nov. 8, 2017, as a result of an accident on his East Texas farm. We are not alone in missing his happy personality and the way he loved our animals and the people who trusted him to care for them. Simon the Cat was the last of our animals he treated. We'd named the kitten "Ivy Diane" and Vladi flipped the kitten over, took a look, smiled and said, "Congratulations, it's a boy!"]
When it came to Porche’s future, Dr. de Jong was right. Porche put on weight. She strengthened her injured leg and runs and jumps with the big dogs -- has a little trauma-inspired arthritis that makes her gait a little odd now and then. But Porche leads the healthy madcap barking when the U.S. mail arrives.
The rasping bark -- I wish I had made a recording. She could not bark like the other dogs, but she gave it a big try with a rasp which quickly devolved into a robust enraged whisper at an intruder.
We originally intended to adopt Porche into a good home. One of our dearest friends even ponied up the dough to spay her. Porche, at the time unpleasantly protective of her food and not quite ready for prime bedtime, wasn’t adoptable. By the time she became adoptable, she had already claimed a home. No way were we going to let her go. Our hearts needed her.
As you can see in that one photo, it's possible to catch me napping on the sleeping dog while a drowsy cat, Deputy Chief Kittie Leigh Johnson, guards the perimeter.

[LARRY ASIDE: And, yes, we’ve kept a few rescued dogs and cats through the decades, but, we also have moved many, many dogs and cats through our little critter-at-a-time system into new homes and rescue groups and shelters. So, we’re relatively minor animal nuts, but we are animal nuts. Write a best-seller or win that lottery and watch out -- we’ll graduate to major animal nut ranking!]
Nowadays, Porche jumps onto a footstool, then onto the bed and takes up her position in the big middle. She is my back support as I lay on my side reading. In the deepest part of the night, when I wake up to turn off the TV or the Kindle or the radio (bad habits for an insomniac), it is comforting to reach out and touch this sleeping dog. And, you know what? She doesn’t move. You can’t make her wake up if she’s not in the mood. She weighs around 50 pounds but it feels like 500 -- if you want to pick her up, rent a forklift.
Sometimes she piles up on our Rottie, Texas Earl The Cheeseman -- Earl doesn't mind, most of the time.

Now and then, she’ll sleep in the recliner (third photo), resting her chin on the arm. I’m not much of a recliner person, but when I sit in it, she’ll stand in front of me and paw at me until I get up and let her have the chair. Some street dog, eh?
Sometimes, when she’s ready to go to bed, she’ll make it clear, standing in front of me and then shaking her head and walking off down the hall toward the bedroom.
Yeah, she’s all street dog. She quickly adapted to climate control, comfy beds and food and snacks. She also adapted to sleeping with cats and cats adapted to sleeping with her. You see her here sleeping while our youngest cat, the baby we bottle-fed, Simon, confirms that he sees Porche as the most dependable pillow in the house.
But look at that noble pose: That's a dog who deserved to be delivered from the terror of life on Dallas' streets.
[PLEASE SEND PHOTOS AND BIOS OF YOUR SLEEPING DOGS AND NAPPING CATS OR ANY OTHER ENTERTAINING SLUMBERER IN YOUR HOME to dallrp@aol.com. We’ll post their stories in our long-running weekend feature, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap. You’ll be demonstrating to petless people how wonderful it is to have a dog or cat in their lives. And you’ll be encouraging the globe’s insomniacs to have faith that they, too, can get some sleep if they can just adopt the right street dog -- and, yeah, they’re all the right street dog. Adopt one and get some sleep.]
--- Offer sleeping advice or critter commentary by clicking “comment” below or emailing dallrp@aol.com. ---