Down With Love

If you've been following along the blog for any length of time you will know that I think Leeloo is just plain weird. It's hard to clearly define but she is incredibly endearing in a Leeloo kind of way. While I know that it's not unheard of for Ridgebacks to like to be covered when sleeping, I wonder how many actually demand you get off your duff when you're over at the computer and put a blanket on them.

What are these demands? Well, in Phase I she employs whining. Intermittent half sigh half whines that go on and on until you look to see what the big damn problem is. Once she realizes you are looking at her she activates Phase II - the tremble. She lies in a little ball with those big bright eyes boring into your soul and every 5 seconds or so has a little shiver. "I'm cold, Mommy, can't you see?" The first few times she did it I was baffled, how can she be cold? The other dogs aren't shivering, it's not cold in here ... and then it all clicked. I'm being played. She sure has me pegged doesn't she? Nevertheless I stop whatever I'm doing and get a blanket, cover her up and miraculously the shivering stops immediately.

When we go to bed Leeloo throws herself down as close to me as she can get, curls into a ball and looks at me pointedly. I sigh and reach for the blanket waiting at the end of the bed, cover her and tuck her in. Raimi gets covered too but since he gets hot quite quickly I usually just cover his head and shoulders. Then we are all ready for sleep.

The *very* best part about covering Leeloo with a blanket is the noise she makes. I cover her and tuck her in, watch the bump of her head settle into the crook of her legs and wait for that noise - it's sort of a groan/moan/sigh and to me it speaks of incredible contentment, happiness, comfort and security. "All is right with the world" says Leeloo when she does that little noise. She does it almost every single time. I think the only time she doesn't do it is when she is very tired. I'll be honest ... it tops up my cup of love.

She also does the head wiggle which, when she does it, is pretty cute. Sometimes it's a little wiggle, and sometimes it's a big wiggle but it's the magic wiggle that increases the comfort quotient. She's the only dog I know that does it consistently. Raimi and Archer do it sometimes but Leeloo is pretty reliable for even just a little wiggle. You know the kind, the one where they settle their head where they want it and then wiggle their jaw around to find just the right spot. It's after the wiggle that the noise comes so I usually get two smile inducing Leeloo-isms for the price of one.

In the course of the night the blanket usually falls off her and for whatever reason I wake up to put it back over her. Probably some internal Mommy Alarm that lets me know one of my charges is discontent. I find the blanket(usually underneath the dogs) yank it out and tuck them in again. A couple times I have actually been woken by the alarm whine that the blanket has fallen off and she needs it replaced - she will simply continue the whining until I do something to fix the situation. After all has been set right she makes that noise and sometimes does the head wiggle. Then we all drop off to sleep again.

Last night, in particular, I realized exactly how spoiled Leeloo is with the blanket. The temperature is warming up now so I thought I'd switch their blanket from the down throw to a regular blanket - mostly because two down blankets on me with two dogs can get a bit warm! We settled in for the night and all dropped off to sleep. At about 4:30am I woke to Leeloo, who was covered with the regular blanket still, having a tremble. I thought it was my imagination, what with being semi-conscious and all, but no ... she was shivering. I tucked her in a little more but to no avail ... trembles. Sighing, I climbed out of bed, stumbled to the livingroom, got the *down* throw and returned to bed tossing the throw over Leeloo in the process. My reward? A head wiggle and a big sigh of contentment. Sweet dreams.