My dog orders me to do the dishes!

Meet Princess Lokota, affectionately known as Lokie. Every night she expects the dishes to be put in the dishwasher directly after dinner so she can get her licks in. Please know this 13 year old shelti is well fed. She eats Breakfast promptly at 6:30 a.m. and there better be a half can of greenbeans mixed in or she'll follow you around poking you with her paw.

"Hey! Where's my veggies?"

No shower, no coffee until the meal is served. When I arrive home at 5 p.m. she expects half a cup of dry food with a tablespoon of low fat yogurt within fifteen minutes of coming through the door. She stands by her dog dish and yaps until this is delivered. Afterwards the family is allowed to eat but immediately after the dishwasher must be loaded so she can inspect the dinner plates. Well, tonight I was tired, in pain (still recovering from rotator cuff surgery) and sacked on the couch to tackle the dishes AFTER Survivor China. I'm the boss here, right? If I want to let the dishes wait-- I'm allowed, right? My dishes, my house...

Eh.

Sorry, Lokie yaps, thats not on the schedule. She's standing here poking and yapping. She pretends she has forgotten what "Go lay down!" means. I think she feigns deafness as the whim takes her but hears very well the whispered word-cookie.

"GO LAY DOWN!"

"Yap! Yap! Yap!" and a poke.

I've lived and learned a half century. I'm an adult, I've raised two children, held numerous jobs and managed many people. I have a black belt in Karate for crying out loud!

But here I sit at the mercy of a dog that barely comes to my knees. My whole existence measured by whether or not I forgot to buy the dog's yogurt.

When I was a kid and wondered what I would be when I grew up-- I don't remember dog-slave being on the list.

Tomorrow night they predict thunder storms.....I'll be here, pinned to the couch by a dog poking, shaking and whining ....its the only time I'm allowed to skip the dishes...