Lizzy and Frodo

For the most part Lizzy is respectful of my older dogs and listens when they tell her to take it down a notch. If that happens she just bounces off to see if anyone else is interested in playing with her - or even just tolerating her while she "plays at" them.

Lizzy and Frodo

However our 10 year old dog Frodo is quite the curmudgeon. Age really has nothing to do with it as he has been uptight since he emerged from puppyhood - he knows how he likes things and he doesn't like other dogs messing with him. He will tolerate Chima and Sal who like to come up and lick his face occasionally but with fosters he lets them know they need to stay outside of his very large bubble of personal space.

Lizzy however is a curious little girl and while she mostly listens to him, when he does something interesting she can't help herself and has to inspect.

I thought it was so cute when Frodo had burrowed under a pile of 3 freshly washed blankets that he had pulled out of the laundry basket and arranged on top of a dog bed. Lizzy came over to inspect his handiwork and Frodo was not amused.

Frodo is Weird

Rigby is getting to know all the dogs in the house and he has decided that resident dog Frodo is a bit strange. Frodo tends to get grumpy out of no where and the other dogs have no idea what they did to set him off. But he is the best at alerting everyone to exciting things to see out the window so they forgive him for his curmudgeonly temperament.

I caught this cute video of Rigby watching Frodo in the act of one of his vigorous couch "backscratch" routines that I thought I would share.

100 Dogs

Besides just being cute and sweet, there's something else that is special about Rothko. He is our family's 100th foster dog!

Rothko - Foster dog #100

We bought our first Rat Terrier, Frodo, from a breeder in December of 2005 and over the next year we fell so in love with the little guy that we considered getting a second Rat Terrier. We weren't sure though so I had the idea of fostering for a Rat Terrier Rescue. I figured then we could have that "2nd dog" but would be saving more than just the one we would save if we adopted a dog. And now here we are, with three Rat Terriers of our own, two foster Rat Terriers and 98 others we have fostered over the last seven years.

My heart dog, Frodo

Initially in 2007 we were fostering for another Rat Terrier organization and our first ten foster dogs were through that group. When New Rattitude formed in August 2008 we changed groups and have been with New Rattitude ever since.

Our first foster dog, Smudge

Weirdly, our first foster dog wasn't even a Rat Terrier. He was a tiny black Chihuahua puppy with a broken leg who we named Smudge. I cried for a whole weekend after he was adopted but decided I could live with the pain of goodbyes if it meant more dogs could be saved. So often people say to me "well, I just wouldn't have the heart to let go of them!" The reality is if you really have a heart, you let them go, knowing that there are hundreds of others waiting for that life saving foster spot. Happily it got much easier to say goodbye the longer we fostered. It wasn't that I loved the foster dogs any less, I just learned how to think of them as someone elses's dog and over time I saw that the families they went to gave them wonderful lives.

Catty, one of our more challenging foster dogs whose adopter has become a close friend

In the past seven years the dogs have taught me so much. I've dealt with just about every physical malady in dogs that I had heard of and some that I had never heard of. I've also dealt with some very gross stuff that only a dog could share with you - dogs eating poop and then puking it up on the carpet an hour later, a dog who left tapeworms in my bed, and every weird wiggly worm that could come out of a dog has graced our doggy septic tank.  

Mama Star and our first (and hopefully last) litter of foster puppies

My understanding of dogs has deepened as well. Whereas I started out thinking of them simply as cute pets, I now appreciate how nuanced their personalities can be and how amazingly complex their language of movement, gestures, and body language is. It fascinates me so much that I now attend many seminars a year to learn how animals learn, how they relate to people and to other dogs, how to help them manage and overcome fear, what makes them tick....

Our 10th foster Tilly was the first highly fearful dog that we fostered. We adopted Tilly and she has made amazing progress over the six years we've had her. She's now 13 years old

They have pushed me to the edge emotionally a few times as well. I've fostered and done behavioral rehabilitation on a few very difficult dogs and of course those are the dogs who taught me the most about both dogs and about myself.

Callista came to us from a shelter in Texas and had been infected with distemper. It was the first time we had to deal with a major disease. Sadly Callista had to be euthanized when the disease moved into her brain. It was one of my most difficult times in fostering. We also had two puppies at the time who caught the disease from her and one pup died and one lived.

It has become a huge part of who I am and is an amazingly fulfilling job and I thank my family for all of their support and help with caring for the dogs. I also thank the volunteers that I work closely with both as fellow foster parents and as a regional rescue coordinator for the Pacific Northwest. Now, onto the next 100!

Our current pack: Tilly, Salinas, Chima and Frodo

If you've ever thought of fostering, New Rattitude is a great organization to work with. They give tons of support, offer stipends for food, pay veterinary medical expenses, cover flea and heartworm preventative and more. To learn more about fostering with New Rattitude go to www.newrattitude.org/foster.htm

Shaping Our Way to Calm

While I'm fairly familiar with using a clicker as a tool for training new behaviors, I've never really had someone explain the training process of "shaping" to me. I understood the idea that you were trying to start with a smaller piece of a behavior and slowly shape that skill into a more complex behavior but didn't really have a grasp of the mechanics.

What better people to learn from than the expert training team of Eva Bertilsson and Emilie Johnson-Vegh who together own the training center Carpe Momentum and teach agility seminars throughout Sweden and Norway. I took their shaping class called "You're in Great Shape" and then throughout the week saw shaping put to use in various labs that used the technique. 

To start with you need the basics of how clicker training works. First you set things up to make the behavior more likely (for example if you are training a dog to lay on a mat and be relaxed you need a quiet environment that isn't overly stimulating, and a time of day that they aren't more excited than usual). This is called the "antecedent." Next you mark the behavior you want. This would be the click and it communicates to the dog what behavior is being reinforced. And then finally comes the consequence, in this case a great consequence that the dog really enjoys. Most often people start out with tasty treats but a toy crazy dog might like a toy instead. The connection of the reinforcement to the less likely behavior will start to make that "less likely behavior" happen more often. If you want to learn more about shaping check out The Ten Laws of Shaping on the Clickertraining.com Website.

And here's the starting point in shaping that I didn't know about. You must start with a behavior that the dog is already doing currently. For example, if you want a dog to eventually lift their rear leg on cue you start might start clicking when they start to walk and lift that rear leg. They are already walking so capture the part of that you like. Then as a behavior becomes quite frequent you can increase your criteria for a click - say the leg needs to come up higher.

I'm a total beginner and so I'm starting with something pretty easy that I hopefully can eventually use as a part of helping my dog Frodo to learn some calming techniques. So my first shaping exercise was to teach him to go to a mat. Eventually we'll work on settling on a mat and then generalizing that to other places. I let him set the shaping pace and had no goals for the session other than to practice the skill and hopefully teach Frodo something in the process.

I started out clicking whenever his head turned in the direction of the mat. He knew I had a sack of treats there and proceeded to sit in front of me, stare and me and occasionally bark in frustration. Since I wanted the experience to be positive for him I stood up and walked around since it was more likely he'd glance at the mat if he was moving around. Sure enough I got a few glances and we were on our way.

Frodo is very impatient, a bit frenetic, and easily frustrated. So it was important to use tiny, tiny steps so his rate of reinforcement for behaviors was high. It was Frodo's first time with a shaping exercise as well so we were learning together. It was exciting for both of us when he figured out that he was in control - his behavior made treats get tossed. Sometimes if he seemed too frustrated I would lower the criteria for awhile so the reinforcement would come at a faster pace. That's where flexibility is so important with this skill - you don't just move forward in shaping, you move where the dog needs to move and sometimes that's stepping back to an easier behavior for awhile.

Here Frodo was first learning a down got him a reward. As you can see there is nothing calm about him but we have a long way to go before we reach calmness.

Once he was looking at the mat and occasionally touching it we increased the criteria and touching the mat was the behavior that earned the treats. Once he was regularly doing that it was two feet on the mat, quickly moving to standing with all four on the mat and then sitting on it. After awhile he laid down on the mat - the final behavior that I was moving towards - and I did a jackpot when he laid down, tossing the treats methodically and slowly off the mat so I wouldn't get him ramped up and also to reset him so he could strengthen the skill of going to the mat and lying down. After several reps of him going to the mat and being rewarded for an "on mat down" we ended the session, both of us happy and ready to do more. That's also a trick to shaping - end your session before any boredom sets in. This is probably the toughest step for the human since we are getting rewarded by our dogs success and we want to keep going.

From his body language you can see that he's still a bit stiff and poised to leap up at any moment, but he's calmer than he was when he first started giving a "down" on the mat. Good work Frodo!

Was our first experience perfect? Not at all! My rate of reinforcement was too slow initially and Frodo got frustrated so I should have broken things down more. It also didn't have the beautiful flow that I saw happening with the very experienced shapers who I saw demo-ing the skill over the weekend. But it was our first try and Frodo and I both learned a lot and enjoyed the experience so I'm going to call it a success.

Once we strengthen this skill of settling on a mat, we'll start adding a cue and also use some tricks I learned from another lecturer, Sarah Owings, about teaching a calm settle on a mat. But I'm trying to just be in the moment and work from where we are at rather than letting those future goals hang over my head and make me overwhelmed. Tiny steps are just as important for me as they are for my dogs. If I overwhelm myself I'll end up giving up and that doesn't help anyone. Better for everyone to take it slow, focus on the present, and have fun with it.

Mutt Mats

For those of you looking for a great mat, check out Mutt Mats. I love them! I bought a size medium at the Expo and it will be a good size for Chima but I can also use it folded in half for Frodo and Tilly who are smaller. Another nice extra is the rope that you can use to bring it along to training classes or mat sessions outside of home, just like your dogs own personal yoga mat. But you don't need a fancy mat to teach this skill. Other great options are bath mats that you can find on clearance all the time or even just use a towel or crate liner.

Frodo and Tilly's Special Presents

Each year a friend who adopted our 2nd foster dog sends a package to Frodo and Tilly from her dog Suki. She knows that Tilly likes to tear apart Kong Squeaker tennis balls and Frodo loves to shred plushies and that I don't really let them do this very often. So each year she sends squeakie tennis balls for Tilly and a Christmas plushie for Frodo so they get to have the pure joy of doing what they love best (next to eating) - destroying toys.

Tilly with a little tennis fuzz in her mouth. Don't you hate it when that happens?

Because the other dogs all know that it's easy to steal stuff from Frodo he gets to enjoy his stuffie away from the other dogs and tear it apart to his hearts content. While Tilly was in the kitchen getting to work on her first tennis ball, Frodo was upstairs with his Christmas octopus, chewing off his legs one by one. Unlike most toys that just have two arms and two legs, this octopus had eight whole appendages to chew off!

Three down, five to go

"What?!"

Apparently I was messing with his mojo by documenting Mr. Octopus' destruction

Mr. Octopus is now an octo-plegic but he's still smiling happily. Obviously he's not aware what is in store for him next (the gutting). That would wipe the smile off his face.

UPDATE: Mr. Octopus is still smiling, although he's a shell of his former self.

Barkbox inspired photo shoot

The dogs got their monthly happy surprise box in the mail - our Barkbox - and it was a really cute summer themed one. It was complete with Beefy Beer, burger treats, puptato chips, BBQ bones, and some calming treats for the dreaded coming of the fireworks. We are going to donate the beer (beef malt flavored glucosamine supplement drink), the bones and the calming treats to the Northwest Rattiefest Raffle, however I did keep the Whole Life burgers and the sweet potato chips.

In fact the dogs were so excited about the treats that I decided to rip open the sweet potato chips and we headed outside for some fun. At first they were just having to sit and be polite. Frodo succeeded on one part of that goal.

Frodo demand barking. How'd that work for you Frodo?

Salinas trying to keep the chip and Chima in her eyesight at all times

But then I realized they were so engrossed by the chips that I might be able to get a good 4 dog photo out of the deal. This photo continues to be a pipe dream of mine but at least we did get some cute shots. It's a good looking crew so hard not to get cute photos. I know I'll get that polite 4-5 dog "sit" photo line up, but it just wasn't the day for it this time.

They were all being so calm here that it gave me the idea to attempt the "4 dog shot"

So we called Frodo...

Of course, Frodo had other things on his mind, namely the squirrel family in the fir trees.

This is the closest we got. One second earlier and I would have got Salinas standing  with the other dogs.

And here the dogs let me know the photo shoot was complete. Tilly was still hoping for that extra sweet potato chip though.

If you are interested in getting a monthly Barkbox subscription use this link and you'll get $5 off the subscription and the foster dogs get an extra box.

State of the Pack Address

So sorry. Nothing insightful, deep, educational or witty today. Just a "State of the Pack" address because the state of the trainer is exhausted and sleep deprived. 

Tilly: My sweet, old little girl is doing great. Her hearing and sight still seems pretty good but she's developed this weird little tilted dance after she eats dinner that seems neurological to me. Probably time for a trip back to Dr. Sperlich to check things out. She's still the grossest little dog in the West and proved it yet again this week when turning to try to eat her poop (as she pooped it) and she fell over. Well, since she loves rolling around in the grass so much she just stayed there rolling around in the grass AND THE POOP, and slowly sliding down the hill in it. Then she righted herself. Marched back across the yard and told off all the dogs who dared sniff her brown streaked hide. Ah, my sweet Tilly, Texas trash. Love ya, girl.  I'm quite proud of myself because I didn't yell once at my fearful little gal. The restraint had me gasping and making weird noises, but I didn't yell "STOP". The worst I said was a quiet, "oh, Tilly."

This isn't a photo of THE infamous poop roll but just is a less gross stand in photo. Trust me, it wasn't pretty. 

Frodo: Frodo had his second nose work class and is really getting into using his sniffer. Thanks to my state of sleep deprivation, I brought him in early for a search during class so he got to sit in the hide room while our instructor Dorothy talked to us about something. During this time he was so discombobulated that I'm pretty sure he leaked anal gland on my pants because when it was the next dog's turn to search he was greatly interested in my knee where Frodo had been rubbing his ass for the last five minutes. Sometimes I wish Frodo had more difficulty expressing his anal glands.

Frodo, practicing his nose work at home

Langley: I've been so busy talking about the girls lately that I've left poor Langley out of the blog. Have no fear, he makes his presence known in our house and isn't being forgotten. We've continued working on integrating him with Chima and Salinas and today I took this video which shows him playing happily with a Kong Bounzer on the couch while the girls were loose in the room. Frodo also makes a cameo in his familiar perch on the arm of the couch. I'm still super careful about supervising all the foster dogs' interactions because so far I've managed to keep everything positive between them. Well, except for the time Langley slipped past me like a horny ninja and humped Salinas. And Salinas had to tell him off because being humped is one of her least favorite things in the world. 

Langley and the Bounzer. This toy has been around for over a month and no one had even looked at it let alone play with it. Langley has decided it is awkward but awesome. He struggled to do a good terrier death shake on it though.

Salinas: This girl continues to grow more and more independent and doesn't seem to rely on Chima as much in new situations. Good girl, Sal! She learned "spin" this week and has perfected it to the point that she nearly pirouettes like a little ballerina on cue. This will be a great trick to help keep her distracted when she's feeling a little nervous. Those "high fives" and "spins" and "sit pretties" aren't just parlour tricks - they are great games to play with your dog to keep their mind busy and to redirect them if they are starting to fixate on something that frightens them. 

Chima: Big Mama Chimayo (her current full nickname) has been working on spin as well but thanks to my beginner skills at "shaping" behaviors it's gone slower with her. I typically lure a dog into a spin and then slowly take away the lure and replace that with the cue. However, a spin lure means moving my arm over the top of Chima's head, and leaning over her which freaked her out a little. So I did this kind of awkward partial lure with her and she came to my rescue by watching her sister and finally understanding what all my bumbling was about. Last night everthing clicked and she started doing full spins. Phew! I love it when my dogs manage to help me hide my training inadequacies by figuring things out on their own. Of course, this renews my realization that I really need to make my way through some basic clicker training classes and shaping classes. While I've done pretty good with books and videos and lots of practice, there's no substitute for a good class. Of course, being the introvert I am I tend to avoid these like the plague but it really is time for me to take some training classes. 

And that is the state of the currently large Brown Family Pack right now. Everyone is getting along (as long as Queen Tilly's reign is respected) and tonight will be the night that I start catching up on sleep so I can come up with some posts with some substance for you. 

Frodo works on rebuilding confidence

Frodo: happiest when he's either eating or burrowed away somewhere soft

Frodo can handle the foster dogs but Langley's not your average foster dog and over the last year that Langley's been with us I've seen the signs of stress in Frodo steadily increase. And as Frodo's stress increased, my guilt increased because fostering is not supposed to make my dogs miserable. I mean, they don't have to love the dogs but I don't want them to be frightened in their own homes.

Langley and Frodo sharing couch space - a new thing this last month

About a month ago Frodo went on a low dose of fluoxetine, an SSRI, to help with his anxiety. His veterinarian and I made this choice after behavioral work, natural remedies and Chinese medicines prescribed by his vet weren't alleviating his stress enough. And it's helping. Finally I'm starting to see a bit of the old Frodo I know and love and he's no longer marking the area where the fosters sleep. I mean, he's still a snobby asshole but hey, that's part of what I love about him.

Long suffering Frodo during puppy duty: Zuni was a pup who liked to push, push, push

Frodo is good about telling puppies to mind their manners,

Along with the medicine, I decided to take an Intro to Nose Work course with the wonderful Dorothy Turley, CPDT-KA. I have a friend who's been taking Nose Work classes with her extremely timid dog and it's really been a confidence builder for him so I decided to try it out with Frodo.

We had our first class the other night and it was a great experience! Frodo is so obsessed with food that I honestly didn't think he'd do very well. I mean, a food drive makes it easier to get them started but Frodo's food drive is so intense that I didn't think he would have the self control to slow down and sniff. I know he's timid in new situations but I thought the food would overpower that. Nope. On his first try he really slunk around, low to the ground, ears back, tail tucked. He was afraid to put his head in the box to get the treats out and just stood there shaking, conflicted between his desire for the treats and his fear of the box. But pretty soon he realized that Dorothy couldn't be all that bad the way she was flinging food around and he started to move faster, tail still tucked but not slinking so much.

Frodo, worriedly hovering near a favorite ball while Zuni considers whether to go for the steal or not

When he came out for his second search he forgot to be afraid and got his terrier on. He went straight up to Dorothy and started demand barking for treats. He figured why look for the freaking treats when this lady is standing here with a bag full in her hands. When that didn't work for him he sat in front of her, hoping some belated politeness might get her to hand over the bag. Nope. That didn't work either. I swear if he could have given a big sigh and said "FINE" he would have. He then turned around and looked and sniffed his way around the boxes, turning abruptly when he caught the scent a couple times. This time he didn't even pause when the treats were inside the scary old box. He just stuck his head in and vacuumed them up. His one fault is that when finding a treat he likes to lick and polish the cardboard until he has gotten every molecule of food off of it so Dorothy had her work cut out for her to keep him moving and working.

Frodo never misses one of the foster dogs' training sessions  since treats are involved. Here he is with Neah and Langley

For me it was great that the class was so pressure free. It was okay that he was shaky and that he was a bit of an asshole to the teacher over treats. She has some Chihuahuas at home so I figured she was totally used to that kind of stuff. When we left for home it was like a little of that weight of guilt was lifted off. It's been too long since Frodo and I did something together without the interference of the other dogs. There were no touch sessions for Chima, or self control work with Langley or exercises to build Salinas' independence and confidence. No desensitization or counter conditioning. It was just me and Frodo with nothing hanging over my head and we both enjoyed it immensely.

If you have a dog who has some social deficits, is reactive around other dogs or is timid and fearful, I highly recommend that you try an intro class. It's pressure free, no special equipment is required, and is a great way to get out with a dog who normally might not be welcome in a group class. The dogs each work one at a time and never meet each other so you don't have to worry about reactivity.

Smile and say "CHEEEESE"

My great friend who writes the blog A Day in the Life of a New Rattitude Foster Dog has this wonderful photo of her dogs and fosters as the banner for her blog. She takes these occasionally in the same location  in their house but with a variety of foster dogs and it's fun to see the newest attempts to get everyone sitting still and looking at the camera.

Well, while I was outside in the backyard playing with 4 of the 5 dogs currently living here, I had the bright idea to take a similar photo on our deck. I knew my personal dogs Frodo and Tilly would sit-stay but Salinas and Chima were another thing.

Here's why this was a stupid idea. Of the four dogs I've got one dog who doesn't want to be more than 2" away from me, and another isn't real hot on the idea of being close to me. Then you've got Frodo who isn't fond of being near the other dogs but will suffer through if treats are involved. Finally you have 8#, 11 yr old Tilly who does not know she is tiny and is not above opening a can of whoop-ass on the other dogs, no matter what their size, if she thinks they've transgressed against her in some manner.

The following 8 photos are presented in the order taken. I really should have stopped after the first one because it just went downhill from there.

Frodo finds if he looks away from the camera he can pretend this isn't happening.  He wants so badly to leave but he'll be damned if he's going to miss a treat. I assume if I just keep snapping photos, he'll eventually look at me, right?

And  in this one Salinas is off the deck, plastered to my leg.

In this one Tilly isn't sure it's worth the effort anymore and everyone else gets distracted by some birds.

Here is where I lowered my expectations - since Frodo wouldn't look at the camera, maybe just a shot of the girls? But Salinas had an itch...

Back to all four. This would have been a good one if Frodo would just look at me.

And, we've lost Salinas again.  What you aren't seeing are the other 10 photos that looked just like this one - 3 dogs and 1 dog butt.

Here you see Chima and Frodo, the stereotype of long suffering dogs, putting up with some confusing human craziness all in the name of a treat.  At this point I actually uttered Frodo's nickname which is "God damn dog". Of course that is said in the gentlest, most loving of voices.

OMG! He looked! He looked at the camera!
And the moral of this story is NOT that you should swear at your dogs. 

No one was harmed in the taking of these photos and even little old Tilly didn't feel the need to put anyone in their place, in spite of Salinas bouncing all over the place and nearly on top of Tilly a couple times.  I pay in really good kibble so they totally thought it was worth the hassle. I on the other hand don't think I'll be trying this again any time soon.

More Toys!

"You can never have enough toys" is Frodo's motto. Well, actually "you can never have enough food" is Frodo's motto but he thinks toys are pretty great too. Lucky for him and the foster kiddos I'm a sucker for new toys and yesterday when I was doing some shopping at the wholesale warehouse for work, I couldn't help picking up a several items for the dogs to test out.

The new loot

Frodo is has lots of experience with warehouse days and was ready and willing to inspect and test the goods

The Treat Pod is just a replacement for the one that we currently have. It is dying a slow death as Salinas and Frodo eat away at one of the knots on it. This new one will be rationed out and hopefully I'll be better at supervising. 

The JW Crackle Head Ball was a big hit with Frodo who loves balls and the cool sound was just a great extra. He wanted to play fetch with it all evening.

So far there hasn't been any interest in the Kong Bounzer but I'm guessing it was because nothing could really compete with the plush Invincible snake. Frodo devoured one of these at Christmas a couple years ago and I'm glad that they've strengthened the toy by adding a layer of Ultrex type fabric inside the plush material as well as binding the edges in luggage binding. Not that it can stand up to a few minutes with Frodo but for actual play rather than chewing, I think it will last longer than the previous version of the toy.

Salinas, Chima and Frodo inspect the new snake

Initially all three, Chima, Salinas and Frodo, were very interested in the snake. In fact Frodo and Salinas were getting a little snarky over it. But Chima decided she still liked the Treat Pod best and after a quick snake inspection went off to throw the pod around.

A standoff between Frodo and Salinas over the snake

I'm thinking it's time to go through the toy basket and retire some of the old punctured, desqueaked toys. I mean, we need room for the next trip, right?

Sleeping In

I'm a night owl and for the most part never go to bed before midnight and during the work week that means I'm always a bit sleep deprived. So when my days off come around, such as this morning, I would really love to sleep in until some late, luxurious time like 10am.

I have canine alarm clocks though, and instead my morning is more like repeatedly hitting a snooze alarm until I'm finally so annoyed that I get out of bed. Tilly refuses to sleep past 7:15 so Troy takes her downstairs in the morning so I don't have to get up with her. 

Frodo is never a problem since he likes to sleep in more than I do. We usually don't see him in the morning until he hears the chime of stainless steel dog bowls being set on the table to be filled for breakfast. He might peek out to see what the commotion is about but then he burrows back under to finish his beauty rest. 

Langley gets a 5 am run in the morning and so he is content to sleep until he decides that he can wait no longer for breakfast - about 9:30am. 

But Hobbs, he is my little snooze alarm. While he will let me sleep until about 8 am, after that he'll let me know that he would really, REALLY, like to get up and head outside for his morning potty break with a sigh and a sad little howl every few minutes. Luckily it is so incredibly plaintive and cute that I always give in by the second reminder.

Hobbs will be heading home tomorrow morning and I will miss my non-demanding little snooze button but next week on my days off I just might get to sleep in until 9. You never know. Miracles do happen.