DaylightSavingsTime

Sailor here. Mom has a strange sense of time. She measures it by the small round disk on her arm and sometimes by the large round disk on the wall. She feeds me my raw meaty bones when the big arrow touches the 12 and the small arrow touches the 6. She comes home from her work at the doctor�s office when the big arrow points to the 6 and the small arrow points to the 5. She goes to bed when the big arrow is on the 12 and the little arrow is on the 10. This is her perception, anyway. Mine is much different.

Last winter she came home at Dark o�clock. She fed me at Dark o�clock and we went to bed at Really Dark o�clock. She did this every day. As the land warmed up and the rains tapered off, she started coming home earlier, at Dusk o�clock. She fed me at Dark o�clock, though, same as always. But as we move into summer, she now comes home at Light o�clock. She feeds me at Light o�clock. She goes to bed at Dark o�clock.

How did she do this, you ask? She is VERY talented. She made magic with the sun! Mom made the sun stay awake a little later each day and slowed down its movement across the sky. Last weekend she outdid herself, though. She made the sun stay up one whole hour later all at once! At least that is what she told me. She said we would have one hour more of daylight than the day before and we would go on having it until she tells the sun to go to bed early sometime around Halloweenie time.

She further explained that the amount of daylight we have actually has to do with the tilt of the earth and the seasonings that fall from the sky, but the ground under my feet doesn�t tilt, not one bit, nor does it smell like pepper and oregano. Granted, the ground shook a little a while back, this happens in California, but the sun didn�t move. And, yes, sometimes when Mom and I are late and driving fast to Dog School, the ground under my feet does tilt quite a bit especially around corners. When this happens, I usually Drop and we make it safely to obedience class with a minimal of drool and flying around in the back seat of the car. And the ground tilted once when I was put in neutral at the veterinarian�s office, but it stayed still once I lay down. At all other times, though, the ground stays put.

Tilt or nor, Sunday Mom fixed the sun and so we now have one hour more of daylight. Since dog time and people time is so different, I am a little unsure of just what she means by �one hour.� One hour measured on her wrist disk, she says, is exactly that, one hour, and is the same amount of time no matter what is happening. I find this curious. One hour in dog time is quite another thing. One hour in dog time is the time it takes to wait for Mom to pour my raw meaty bones into my bowl and put them on the floor for me to eat. One hour is the time it takes Mom to get up from the computer and open the door when I ring the bell and need to go out NOW. One hour is the time it takes to drive to Dog School, especially when I smell freeze dried liver in her pockets.

Speaking of time, one hour is quite different from what Mom calls �one minute,� which is the amount of time I get to play at the dog park. One minute is the time Zoe and I are allowed to play herd in the back yard, and it is the time it takes Mom and me to walk two miles to the horse stables and back. Mom says that there�s also �one year,� which, in my estimation, is the time it takes her to open the door and let me inside when it is raining and is the time it takes Zoe to come back inside when she and Mom are doing Driveway Obedience.

No matter how you me measure it, I love this new world. I get to eat supper in the day instead of the night. Mom comes home from work in the afternoon instead of the evening. We go for our nighttime walk in the daylight. Everything is groovy!

Sailor, so why am I so sleepy in the mornings?