Prairie Dogs

I can't go back to sleep.

It's four am, and Dennis is chasing prairie dogs in his sleep. I don't know why those pesky prairie dogs keep nipping at his ankles, but they do. At least 3 nights a week he is fighting them off, swearing at them and they just keep biting away. It's quite a noisy dream and his legs and arms flail around in stiff and abrupt motions. It's not easy to stay asleep, or fall back to sleep when he is dreaming out loud.

One of his doctor's suggested that he take an extra sleeping pill midway through the night. In theory, it should work. In actuality, this would mean waking him up, propping him up, giving him the pill, unpropping him and readjusting him to a sleeping position. This would be a 30 minute process, and I would be so wide awake by the end, I still wouldn't be able to get back to sleep.

I tried putting my arm around him, but he is wearing his dinner from the night before, and his chest is sticky. I talked to him and let him know that I chased every last one of those critters away, but he must not have believed me, because he just kept flailing and yelping.

Finally, I got out of bed, cleaned up the kitchen and sat down to write this blog. Naturally, now that it almost time for the alarm to go off, he has quieted down. Oh, well, yesterday his PCA wasn't able to come and we slept in until almost 11:00. I can't complain about a lack of sleep.

I would, however, like to figure out why he dreams of prairie dogs. Is it just me, or is this an odd animal to have in a dream?

Until later,
Ann and Dennis