This is the story of Tom, a cat that likes to sleep on the couch on the rug on the chair on the pillow.
Manola is a ten-year-old dog, originally from Brazil and currently living in the Netherlands, together with Pepper, her nine-year-old dog sister and Tom, her eight-year-old cat/protegé brother. Despite her age, Manola is a very active dog -- she likes to go out with her sister, where their father, M, locks their leash on his waist and takes them out for a run by bike.
Every day, when M is about to go out with the dogs, he performs a small routine. It starts with him putting on his shoes - at this time, Manola is most likely sleeping soundly under the duvet, but Pepper.. oh, Pepper is already alert. Pepper is probably a mix of Grey Hound so she LOVES to run, simple like that. Said that it is actually Pepper that is taking everyone out for a run. Anyway, the routine continues as M puts on his dark green raincoat and heads to the laundry room to get the equipment for the outing. The list is quite big, actually -- in the package it includes: six small treats for the dogs: two for while putting on the leash, two for while in the lift coming back after the run, and two for while taking out the leash; poop-bags (always pack poop-bags, peeps!); three leashes, being two for the dogs and one for M. Getting to this point has gotten M two little shadows, who keep walking behind him until he is ready and move on to the living room.
Zoomies can be the definition of this phase - the very agitated and happy dogs start playing around the living room, mostly on the couch. M calls for Manola, once she is the leader of the pack and has to have everything first. The tradition goes as follows: first, M gets the leash with his left hand then, with his right hand he gets a treat and asks Manola to sit. He then puts the leash on her and gives her the treat -- this is now the funniest part: M tells Manola to call her sister and Manola starts zooming after Pepper for her to come and get her leash done soon, soon, soon. They start to play on the couch and it can take sometimes up to two minutes until they calm down. Pepper comes then running and the routine goes the same way. Ready to go? Absolutely not! Manola has still to eat some grains of food for energy and M and Pepper have to wait for her to finish without rushing, otherwise, she will feel sick and everything will just be slower.
Okay, now they are ready to go. Mommy wishes them a good outing and everyone goes happily out for some exercise.
What about Tom, you ask? Well, he is deaf and kept on sleeping on his pillow at the entrance hall for the whole time, without even noticing a thing.