If you’ve ever done door to door sales you may have run across a sign in the window or taped to the door that says “Day Sleeper – Do Not Disturb”. This sign has been put there because the occupant is a shift worker and works the night shift. 11:00pm to 7:00am in the morning. This is a tough shift to work as it turns your life completely up side down.

They are usually ready for supper when they get off work at seven am, lunch for them was about 2 or 3 in the morning. Then they have to do what ever needs to be done during the day so they can go to bed around 1 to 2 in the afternoon. It’s hard to sleep in the daytime even if you’re in a completely dark room. Noise creeps in, sirens, kids playing, traffic noises, you just don’t sleep well. This leads to sleep deprivation and very soon you are one very cranky individual.

 You’ve unplugged the phone, done everything you can think of to try to sleep and then the worst happens. Someone knocks on your door. Once, twice, sometimes more, until you get up to see who it is and you find a salesman standing there. One  with a terrific price on a vacuum cleaner or a set of encyclopedias. Or it’s some self-righteous person who is desperately certain that your soul needs saving and if you’d just let them come in they would help you find Jesus.

You no longer ask “Didn’t you see the sign?”. You already know that they think their agenda is more important than your sleep. So you casually pull them into your cave and dismember them. This normally takes a good 1 to 2 hours, so right there you’re that far behind when you try to go back to sleep.

This is Dazma the Amur leopard who lives at the Denver zoo. She is a day sleeper. Wake her at your own peril.