A worn leather collar jingles like a set of keys with each padded step. This tremendous furball besieges the walls with her exuberant tail endlessly hammering back and forth. Her nose pressed relentlessly into your own, followed shortly by her oceanic tongue ripping an incredible tide of unsolicited saliva across your recoiling face…

The way I see it, I could have gone two directions. A pointy, sharp, aggressive spike or Spike, the dog. Naturally I decided to write about a dog, but I didn't want it to be a mournful memory of a pupper lost. I started with the collar because, for me, that was the easiest part to start at. I wanted this dog to feel joyful, snuggly and goofy. 

Before I ran out of time, I had added another line “a loving if not unpleasant wake up call” but felt it really drew me back out of the narrative so I removed it. Object writing has been really good at helping me highlight when something feels true to the perspective I'm writing from. Had the timer not gone off, I would have focused on the tussle of blankets, the jolly smirk of Spike, the sun beating into the room shuttled around by a lazy fan.