One through Five

The carpet is a light color, not exactly a grey or beige, somewhere in between, solid. A color that shows everything against its weave, especially spilt coffee. Before the aroma of coffee even began to fill the room, with a flick of the coffee pot switch, our dog would always run wacky dog loop de loo towards his toy box.

“Why are you sitting on the floor playing tug with him while you drink your morning coffee, anyway? You created this problem.” Said my husband admonishingly, when my coffee spilled onto the carpet for the umpteenth time.

“I don’t know. I guess because I’ve always been a multitasker? And once a routine is set, break it, and try explaining that to a dog. But you are right,” I relented, running for the paper towels and solvent. “Before this rug is destroyed, I’m going to change it up, sit down with my coffee, and he will just have to wait.”

The next morning I anticipated my dog’s rebuttal, but was more than amused with his method of communicating his displeasure. While I held steadfast to my newfound behest, he began to tap with his paw on my leg, but not in the way we could have expected.

Tap. Pause. Tap tap. Pause. Tap tap tap. Pause. Tap tap tap tap. Pause. Tap tap tap tap tap. Long pause. And then he started all over again. One through five.

I nudged my husband into attention, because I couldn’t believe it.

“Is he counting?”

“Yup!”

It took awhile for the new routine to settle into my dog's psyche. Maybe about a week or two as I would hold my coffe cup up towards him while repeating a command he was familiar with. “Wait. Wait.” But during that week or two, I have to say, we enjoyed the one through five tap rebuttal, even more so than our coffee and clean carpet.