It's too early for this

Brushing my teething this morning, they stared at me.

“Whah?” I said with a red, foamy mouth (Colgate cinnamon).

“Nothing,” they said, sighing.

“Fi-ine,” I said with a gigantic eye roll. I am not a morning person.

I rinsed out my mouth. They kept staring.

“What do you want?” I said exasperated even though it was only 6:30 a.m.

“You never take us out anymore,” they blurted.

“That is so not true!” I said, looking at them in the mirror. “I took you for a walk just last week.”

They gave me that look, that oh-come-ON-you-know-better-than-that look.

“OK, maybe it was the week before that, but geez we went recently, didn’t we?”

“It’s not good enough,” they said. “You promised we’d go every day and we’ve been sitting up here on the towel rack, folded nicely, waiting patiently. We know you’re avoiding us.”

I sighed heavily. “I’m not avoiding you,” I said. “I’m sorry. It’s just, well, life, you know. And, geez, it’s so hard to get up in the morning, and I’m so tired all the time and we have so much to do these days, and I’m trying to work freelance and I have all these projects and—”

“You always have an excuse,” they said, defeated. “Remember…remember two summers ago when you were losing all that weight that people said it was just melting off of you?”

I dropped my eyes and leaned against the sink. Yes, I remembered.

“And remember how good it felt to see good numbers on your meter even if you skipped your walk one day?”

Tears welled in my eyes. Yes, I remembered.

“And you know, you wouldn’t be so tired all the time if you actually put us on and walked more often,” they scolded. "I mean, we're here all ready to go. You don't have to search for Socks or Shorts. Not even Scrunchie. We're all right here, ready to go every single morning."

“I know…I know,” I said sheepishly.

“Well what’s the hold up?!” they screamed at me.

“I…I, oh hell I have no idea. I have no excuses, I have no reasons. I…I just don’t know. I’m sorry,” I cry out. “I’m so sorry. I’ll take you down and we’ll go for a walk tomorrow,” I promise. "Please don't be mad anymore! I don't take criticism well!"

"We'll be expecting you at 5:30 a.m."

"Man, that's really early..."

"MICHKO!!"

"OK, OK. I'll see you tomorrow."