Sunday, June 10, 2007

Things that go Boo in the night

So we're having a few more challenges with Boo. I imagine at some point we'll get everything straighted out with him, but for right now he can still manage to throw a surprise or three our way.

Some might recall that earlier the year we had problems with him barking in the middle of the night and waking us up if he heard a noise in the corridor. For the most part, that's a habit he's broken. There's the odd flare-up, but until recently unless there was an ungodly racket, he was sleeping through the night.

In the last month or so, however, he's introduced two new variants on this.

The first came as the amount of daylight began to increase. Typically, Boo would begin to crash for the evening as it got dark and the drapes were closed. However, with the increase in daylight, he wasn't going to sleep as early. So even when I was getting ready to head to bed around 11:30, Boo was deciding now would be a good time to fetch his squeaky toy and insist on playing.

So that was a week or two of him whining at midnight looking for attention and us trying to persuade him that he needed to go to sleep now. He's getting the point, but he does have more vim later in the evening than he did before.

Then again, the increased daylight tends to mess with everyone at this year, so why not a dog that doesn't really know any better.

But the latest trick came Friday night. With temperature finally staying above 0C on a regular basis now, we need to open the windows to the apartment or it gets unbearable stuffy.

Yes, those of you getting temperatures in the mid-20s are probably perplexed on why 3C merits opening the windows. I've said it before, but just as a refresher, most of the new building are super-insulated. That makes sense, when for about eight months of the year you're dealing with sub-zero temperatures. But during the summer it can make them awfully warm.

Those stories about how people now need fans and air conditioning in the arctic because it's now so warm...partially true. The other half is just better building construction.

Anyway, so we have the windows opening during the day so the place isn't a sauna when we get home. However, on Friday night we experimented with leaving the windows open at "night." Remember, 24 hours of daylight now. It's doesn't cool down much at midnight.

Nor are people more likely to be sleeping. They are likely to be out wandering, placing soccer, drinking, cursing and do whatever you feel like doing at this weird time of the year.

Which is, of course, severely throwing off Boo. Several times Friday and Saturday night Boo awoke barking loudly, and jolting us awake, barking at some affront taking place outside our apartment. It then takes about 15 minutes to get him calmed down and convince him that our lives are not in peril and that he should shut the fuck up.

The weirdest one came at 4:07 a.m. Sunday morning. The times Boo woke us up Saturday morning were from drunks cursing outside the apartment. This place is quieter than the 6-story, but it is still perched on one of the main intersections in town. There is traffic, of the vehicular and human variety.

But last night he woke us when four girls were outside throat singing.

Which, in his defence, is a bit of a weird thing to wake up to and does, in a semi-conscious, sound a bit like dogs barking. Still, it's something new to have work on. He' either going to have to get used to the noise outside or we're going to have to close the windows and hope that a fan is enough to prevent us from melting during the night.

Ahhh, the joys of dog ownership...

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