Personal Narrative: Keltie's Dog

Waking up at six thirty on a Saturday morning is not something I am used to. On this unusual sunrise I needed to take Keltie, my older sister Tamara’s dog, outside. When my alarm went off Keltie, a medium sized, brown dog with a white spot on his chest, laid between my legs with his narrow head on my left thigh. I stayed there for a few minutes waiting for the haze that waking up brings. As that alleviates, I reached over to my bed side table to get my glasses, Keltie reacted to this by hitting my ankles with his tail. He stopped wagging his tail and sat up, staring at me with his large, brown eyes. After a couple of seconds, he began to wag his tail again. There was not a long period of that before he laid down again, licking his right leg

and then twisting his body to reach his behind. As he licked himself, I turned on my lamp light, which shined purple. Standing up, Keltie walked slowly toward my head on my left side. When he reached my chest he laid down, by setting his chest down first and then his behind, and proceeded to stare at me.
A few minutes passed and he moved down to the bottom of my black and white, zebra print bed, and just stood there for a second. All of the sudden he jumped down onto the floor, which made me sit up. Keltie stopped, turned around, and stared at me from the floor, with his ears peeking up. He sat down and started to scratch his right side with his leg for a few seconds, and then switched to the other side. After scratched both sides, he stood up and shook his body, as if he just received a bath. I scooted my body out of bed, because my bed sits in a corner. Keltie does not move, as I leave my bed, but he started to wag his tail. When I reached the door, located a few feet away from the foot of my bed, Keltie stood up and shifted his body to the point where he faced the exit. He whined softly as I told Keltie, “lay down and stay”. When I opened the wooden door he quieted and lifted his head up, looking around the small, square-like room. I left my bedroom and used the restroom.
This is not the first year I have had to babysit Keltie for my sister. For the past three years whenever she and her boyfriend, Joe decided to make the trip from Colorado to Iowa I am left with this burden. The first year I babysat I really enjoyed it, mainly because I did not have to do all of the dirty work, such as taking him out and feeding him. The second year my half-century, skinny but tall mother, said that I had to take him out and feed him. The job, that year, was enjoyable because of two reasons; one being I did not have to wake up early and attend school while Keltie stayed with us, the second reason being the responsibility that I had to have became fun and I enjoyed taking care of a living being. This year the enjoyment fell away because I got to wake up so early to take care of him. This became a burden because in the mornings he would be super hyped up while I woke up just to watch him run in circles to run free outside. The rule I made when he first arrived, three years ago, was I used the bathroom before I took him out.
As I left the bathroom, someone by the name of Diamond, a minuscule, white, terrier, greeted me. She ran around in circles, exited at the sight of me. It seemed whenever Diamond saw me she always tinkled because of her overjoyment of seeing me, which occurred this early morning. Keltie, hearing my interaction with Diamond, whined behind my door. I told Diamond,“go back to mama baby girl,” when she sat down and head spiralling in circles. In the process of opening my door, Keltie stood up and walked backwards. When I closed my door Kelite walked sideways to the right and sat down staring at my zebra print pajama pants, then proceeded to lay on my them. Becoming uninterested in my bottoms, he started to wag his tail and stare at me, eagerly waiting for me to open my door. He began to move toward the exit, as I grabbed my pajama pants, and sat down staring aimlessly in the direction of my door.
Unknowingly, my mother entered my room.

Keltie reacted to this by first wagging his tail, then running in circles, and finally by whining. My mother walked to my closet, with Keltie watching closely, to gather his brown, circular dog food from the large, blue bag. Holding his dog food in a metal, measuring cup, my mother walks to his metal food bowl and poured the food in there, all the while Keltie sat patiently and waited for his cue to eat. My mom snapped her finger and pointed at the food, which is his cue, watched Keltie run toward the food. For the first three bites, he grabbed a mouthful of food, walked backwards a few steps, and then ate it. After those first few gatherings, he ate the rest at the bowl with his head cocked sideways. Finishing his bowl of food Keltie came toward my bed, wagging his tail, waiting for my permission to jump up. I patted twice on my bed and he hopped up and laid down, still continuing to wag his tail. I stood up and walked over to my zebra print, circular chair and retrieved Keltie’s purple, service dog, harness. With the jingle of his tags, Keltie stood and jumped off my bed. On the floor, Keltie started to jump with his front legs reaching reaching toward the sky. I sat down on my knees to try to calm him down, this helped because he stopped jumping. As I tried to insert his head through the harness he laid down, which made it considerably harder to stick his front legs through the strap. His head remained in the harness as I lifted his legs and inserted them through the straps. There was a little trouble with his left leg because one of his nails inhibited the entry of the leg, but that was fixed easily by just wiggling his leg slightly. Once his legs were in the harness, a strap needed connecting underneath his body. In connecting this strap, I ended up lifting Keltie’s stomach. After I finished putting on the harness, I clamped on his leash which made him sit up. I put my hand on the metal door knob and opened the door.

Waiting for my permission, Keltie looked up at me, with the swing of my arm and the snap of my finger we were gone.