Up a bit earlier than usual this morning. Seems that two raccoons were having a spat over something or other in the woods near the house. Mind you, critter noises are the norm around here & typically get no more response than rolling over to go back to sleep. Not today. Zeke the wonder dawg decided this was not going to happen on his watch, so he starts pacing around the house. Go ahead, I’m going back to sleep. Apparently that was the wrong answer or so I came to realize when he jumped up on my chest.

It’s not quite 3 AM and I open one eye to find his snout, with his nasty doggie breadth I might add, not an inch from my face. Wonder if they make breath mints for dawgs? Not my fault that he doesn’t have opposable thumbs and can’t open the door. Fine, we’re both up, now what? Well, Zeke figures that I might as well get his breakfast seeing that I’m headed to the kitchen anyway. So I serve up his grub while asking the obvious question, “ok, so what about the raccoons?” He stops long enough from feeding his face to give me the “what raccoons?’ kinda look. Sigh…

Lucky for him that Mother Nature finally gave us a break from the rain. I did my morning chores then headed out at first light for a 5 mile run along the canal. Truth be told, by my way of thinking anyway, there few scenes in nature as beautiful as the morning sun coming up over a misty river. Gotta say that Mother Nature outdid herself this morning.

Guess it just goes to prove that some good can come of even the most irritating situations. If it wasn’t for Zeke, I would have missed a beautiful sunrise; if it weren’t for alopecia, I wouldn’t have found this place and met all of you. Hope y’all have a great day…