4:14 a.m.

I am up at 4:14 - less than three hours since I went to sleep. Admittedly, I'm often up very early without having much sleep, but this was not intentional. I'm up because someone is irresponsible and their dogs were barking outside my bedroom window. At 4:14 a.m. My second story bedroom window.

I am not a dog hater. Quite the opposite, there are dogs I adore. You may remember seeing pictures of Petie on this very blog. I could quickly become a dog-owner hater, though. I never understand why people think others want to listen to their dogs yap. If I really wanted a big dose of dog barking in my life, I'd get a freaking dog.

Guess how much dog barking I want? Zero. I find absolutely nothing charming about it. Nothing. I can't figure out what others like about it. Of course, they don't really like it, or their dogs would be with them instead of barking outside my bedroom window. At 4:14 a.m. My second story bedroom window.

My next door neighbors have one of those little dogs that barks constantly, but I never hear it. They're responsible dog owners. Maybe twice a year I hear the dog when they're going in or out of the house, and I don't mind. I can't relate to the dog - whenever I see it it's just yapping; at me, at them, at cars going by, at a leaf on the ground, at the open air. I can't imagine what joy anyone gets from such a creature but I suppose they do and more power to them as long as I don't have to share in it.

Unfortunately, my neighbors from somewhere across the street don't keep their dogs so well controlled, because they were barking outside my bedroom window. At 4:14 a.m.

When I went outside to see what was going on they took off across the street, so I'm guessing that's where they belong. Did I mention it was 27 degrees with a windchill of 19 when I was outside, in the dark, dealing with someone else's dogs barking outside my bedroom window? At 4:14 a.m.