Getting comfortable

Over the years, we've spent a lot of money on dog beds at our house. Our bedroom floor is covered with them. Pretty much if there's open space on the floor, it's been taken up with a doggie throw or bed. Because you never know where each dog will want to lay on a particular night. And god forbid any of them has to actually lay on the carpeted floor, like an animal. Plus there's usually at least one bed in the living room, as well as in a couple of throws in choice areas around the house where the dogs like to lay - in the spare room behind the futon, under G's desk. We even have a few old beds in the garage that we throw outside when the weather's nice. Because we want Mia to be comfortable while she's sunning herself in the yard, and the grass just doesn't cut it.

A few weeks ago, we took the dogs to Napa with us and only grabbed a bed and a couple of throws. They had to figure out the bedding situation amongst themselves, and I swear, Mia came back from that weekend limping like crazy. I think it's cuz she spent a good portion of one night laying cushion-less on the hotel room floor, and that made her hips all stiff, poor thing.

So with the house decked out to their convenience, I'm always a bit amused by where each dog chooses to hang. For example, a while back, when Bandit's Cushing was at its worst, she developed a habit of sleeping on the floor in the corner right next to G's side. And peeing there during her leaking days, which made life very pleasant for G (the stank urine smell seemed particularly strong when he lay down to go to bed each night). So he went out and bought her a cozy little bed and stuck it between the wall and the bed, so she could curl up in it instead of the floor. With the added benefit of having something easier to clean than trying to get pee odor off the carpet. And sure she uses it sometimes, but more often than not, we find one of the other two all scrunched up in it even though they're too big.



Bandit, meanwhile, as our smallest dog, finds the biggest bed there is and curls up in the corner of it.

And my personal favorite, of course, is that all of them seem to love the biggest bed of all and choose that over the others whenever given the opportunity. That, of course, happens to be our bed. And it'd be entertaining if it weren't uncomfortable to have them taking up a ton of space every night. They actually take turns, it seems, and somehow appear to have an arrangement all worked out. Tucker and Mia take shifts, I think, and neither will really want to get on when the other's on. Mia kind of sprawls, so I think that cramps Tucker's style. He, on the other hand, is particularly fond of snuggling up next to one of us and resting his head on our legs or between my knees. Bandit likes to take the morning shift, so I sometimes wonder if she asks to go outside super early just so she can come back and get on the bed. And we know, for example, that either Mia or Tucker have been all curled up on our pillows for several days now during the day while we're at work. The telltale signs are everywhere when we get home. . . . the comforter mussed up, dog hair all over the place.

Here's Mia one night standing (or should I say laying) her ground even after Gregg started tossing all his clothes on her in an attempt to get her to move over a bit (instead of taking up the entire bottom third of the bed).