Long Suffering Junior.

Our smoke detector in the hall went off this morning. The battery was low. It lets off this high pitch beep intermittently to let you know you need to change the battery.

The only thing was that because it beeps at spaced out intervals I wasn’t fully aware of it this morning while I was sleeping. It would beep and I’d sort of half way wake up but then fall back to sleep again. Finally in exasperation Junior came to my bedside, raised up himself with his paws on the edge of the bed, and commenced to patiently wait staring me down right in my face to wake me up.

All I remember is waking to a dog nose almost touching mine. My dogs are very respectful and so I know if either of them is waking me up that something is wrong. I jumped out of bed to let Junior outside, thinking that was the problem until I heard the beeping.

Later in the kitchen Sri was getting ready for work and I told her how Junior couldn’t take the beeping anymore and decide to take matters into his own hands to get me up. Sri says long suffering Junior could be my Snooze-A-Tron. She was referring to the Wallace and Grommet movies. Wallace is an inventor with his dog Grommet who ends up enduring the crazy contraptions.

In her best Wallace voice she says, “Ready Junior!” And we both envision Junior -- in a sheep costume -- bouncing through the air, up and down, as I try to count sheep to fall back asleep.