My Busted Dog

My dog loves us. She loves to be near us. If we sit on the couch, she lays right in front of it at our feet. If we are at the table, she works herself into the corner closest to it and lays there, waiting for us to be done. If we are outside in the yard, she follows us around curious as to what we might be doing in her domain.

We do let her up on our bed, during the daytime and also at night if we are watching TV in the bedroom. Usually, she'll jump up and place herself at our feet again, or if she is feeling really affectionate, lay her body lengthwise against our legs.

However, even though we defy all those dog training books about letting dogs up onto the bed, we do have some rules:

The only absolutely forbidden area for the dog is the couch and any chairs in our home. We enacted this as a way to protect guests. They can find a safe haven from licking and jumping at any couch or chair in our house. She is so well-trained in this rule that even if her squeaky tennis ball lands on the couch during an indoor game of fetch, she will refuse to jump up and get it, but will instead stare at it with great intesity and eagerness, barking for us to come rescue it from this beige wasteland.

When she is on our bed, we only let her lay on the outside cover and decorative pillows. SHe is not supposed to be in the sheets or on our unprotected pillows.

At night, when we begin getting ready for bed, she gets thrown outside for her last chance to take care of her dog duties! (haha I said duty...y'know like doody.... yes, 5-year-old humor has worn off on me! :-) ) Then, after a few minutes, she is brought in and banished to the kitchen where a luxurious dog bed, that is twice as big as what she actually needs, awaits her. Two cast-off feather pillows are placed "just so" for her comfort. The only thing missing is a mint to adorn them. Trust me, she could really use a mint..

She is not allowed back in the bedroom until morning. She used to lay on her own bed all night long until my son would let her out in the morning. However, lately she has been roaming the house at night and several times we have come out to see her laying at the threshhold of our bedroom, staring longingly at us in the dark.

Sometime last night, she decided to go for broke and creep into the den with the alpha dogs(us). I kept hearing the faint jangling and tinkling of her collar in the wee hours, but was too tired to investigate. When I could take it no more, I got up and nearly tripped over a huge, warm lump at the foot of our bed. I grumpily order her outside, thinking maybe she needed to go out.

By the time she finished and came back in, I was too awake to sleep. I goofed around on the computer, then finally laid down on the couch, trying to spare my husband from losing more sleep. He eventually got up and headed out for a meeting. When I finally roused myself from slumbering, I got up and found this:

She played me! It was all just a ruse to take over my bed and sleep on my pillow!

That dastardly dog.