JEEBUS FRIES!

Last night around 5 my smoke alarm started chirping. You know, the noise it makes when it thinks it's running out of batteries? Yeah, that. Every 30 seconds or so..."chirp." "chirp." "chirp." It's annoying and it was driving the dog crazy.

The reason it was so annoying is because I can't reach the smoke alarm. It's on the wall right underneath my vaulted ceiling, which is about 12 feet up. I can't even get close to it if I stand on a chair.

Since my building manager is often in her office until 6 or 7 on weekdays, I put Sum in her leash and we walked over.

I had forgotten that, on Fridays, she's only in her office until noon. I filled out a maintenance slip and put it through the mail slot, resigned to living with the chirping until Monday.

Oddly, the chirping doesn't seem to be regular. It was at first, definitely. Every 30 seconds. Then, after a couple hours, I realized it hadn't chirped in about 15 minutes. Of course, soon after I thought that, it started up its every 30 seconds thing again. For about an hour. Then it started doing it once every 10 minutes or so.

I wasn't really looking forward to trying to sleep with that going on, but we went into the bedroom early last night and closed the door (which we usually don't do). Summer was still sort of freaking out every once in a while, pacing, looking for the beeping ninja and staring at me with her ears back and a look of bewilderment in her eyes.

Around 10:30, I realized there was no more beeping. Summer was curled up on the floor, sleeping soundly, and I decided to put my book aside and fall asleep as well.

At 2am, I was awakened. Not by a beeping, but by something that sounded like slapping and gulping.

It was Summer, violently and constantly licking her nose. She'd stick out her tongue and slap it across her nostrils, making a popping noise. She did it again and again, while standing my bed, panting. Her ears were tucked back but her tail started wagging when she saw me open my eyes, even if my first words were less than comforting: "WHAT? Dammit, really? Seriously??"

I reacted thus because that's what Summer does when she's not feeling well and wants to go outside and eat grass. It usually means she's trying to keep from throwing up.

I stumbled out of bed and put on some pants and a wool shirt, pulled on my down coat and stuck her in her harness, grumbling the whole while. When Sum gets like that, there's nothing to do but let her eat grass. I know it's not really good to let dogs eat grass, but it seems to help her settle her stomach when she gets like that.

We went downstairs and she immediately went at the lawn like a hungry sheep, pulling up tufts of greenery and licking her nose in between. After about 3 minutes, I made her come upstairs.

I tried to get her to drink some water, but she kept going back to the door and staring at it, then looking at me with big eyes. Then she'd lick her nose again. "Mom, this is the noise you have to look forward to if you don't take me out again."

I'm probably a sucker, but I took her back outside. That time we walked around the building, and she was munching on grass the entire way. When we finally got back inside, I crawled back in bed and she stood beside me. She was still licking her nose, but not constantly, so I knew she was feeling better. I ignored her and eventually she lay down on the floor and I heard her sigh. Her nose-slaps were becoming fewer and fewer.

This morning, I woke up to a chirping sound. Summer was sleeping next to me in bed, but she raised her head and looked around; the ninja was back! It chirped a couple more times and then stopped. We fell back asleep.

A couple hours later, we woke up again. The alarm beeped once, then stopped. It hasn't made a sound since, but I'm not expecting it to hold its silence forever. I'm sort of tired, not because I didn't get enough sleep (I overslept way more than is usual for me today!) but because it was interrupted. I'm spending the day trying to do homework. I forgot just how much I dislike homework! This will definitely take more getting used to!

Summer is fine this morning. She ate her dog food with no trouble, drank some water, and has been alternately napping and bugging me to go play with her. My little angel.