Mr. Darcy's White Night

I had a lousy night. That’s because I spent four hours – from midnight to 4 am – dealing with Mr. Darcy.

Darcy is normally a calm indoor dog. Don lets him out before he comes to bed at night (he goes to bed much later than I do), and I let him out first thing in the morning (I usually get up very early). But last night at midnight, I awoke to hear the click of Darcy’s toenails on the floor outside our bedroom door. It made me think he had a digestion issue of some sort, and needed to go outside.

So I got up and let him out. He did nothing but sit on the porch for ten minutes, calmly observing the night. So much for digestion issues. I called him in and went back to bed.

No dice. Darcy paced the floor of the house, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. So I got up and let him back outside again, this time for a good half-hour. During the interim, I worked on a jigsaw puzzle I had just started the night before.

When half an hour had elapsed, I called the dog into the house and went back to bed.

No dice. Darcy continued to pace the floor, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. So I got up again and let him back outside again. This time I just left him outside and went back to bed. Of course by this time I was wide awake. After, I dunno, 45 minutes or so, I heard Darcy walking around the wrap-around deck to the front door, then scratch to be let it.

So I got up and let him in. He immediately collapsed onto the floor as if he was exhausted by all these middle-of-the-night shenanigans. I gave him a pat and went back to bed. By this point it was 3:30 am. But as I snuggled up next to Don and tried to fall back to sleep, I heard Darcy again start to pace the floor, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I tried to ignore it and finally drifted off to sleep around 4 am.

Needless to say this kind of sleep interruption colors one’s whole day. I was blurry and out of sorts. Darcy, by the way, was feeling fine and frisky, went on his walk without an issue, pooped just fine, and in all ways behaved perfectly normal.

On the occasional night when one of us sleeps badly for no discernible reason, we call those “white nights.” I guess Darcy just had a white night.

Older Daughter had a brief errand in town, and when she returned she presented me with this: hot chai tea (a rare treat) and a bakery cookie to make up for my lack of sleep.

I have a great family. Even Darcy is a good boy … except when he has a white night.