Never Say Never

I always said that a dog would never share our bed.

It all stems from the fact that, as children growing up, we had several beasties that would sleep in our beds with us. Some, like Felix the Cat, would wake us up with an early morning head massage, complete with claws. Others, like our Doberman, Red, would climb in between the wall and the bed's occupant and slowly push the person out of bed. Many a morning at least one of us kids woke up on the floor, only to find a four-footed friend in our bed, head nestled snugly on our pillow.

So, when my husband and I got our first furry friend, The Barker, I swore then and there that he would never sleep with us in our bed. The Barker spoiled us for all other dogs. He was willing to sleep anywhere we told him to sleep. He was willing to do whatever we told him to do. His only flaw -- he barks a lot! Anyway, we had no problem with him wanting to sleep with us. It was never even an option in his mind.

Next came Underdog. He slept in our bathroom on a blanket the first few nights, but that was as close as he ever came to our bedroom. After that, he preferred his kennel. It is kind of his Underdog-ish Fortress of Solitude. He and The Barker share the laundry room at night - The Barker on an old bath mat and Underdog in his "fortress".

Enter Mighty Mouse.

Ok, up to this point, we were relatively spoiled. Dogs slept where dogs were supposed to sleep - not with us! It seemed only logical that Mighty Mouse would also sleep not with us. We bought him a "fortress" too. He hates it. He considers it a prison. We got him a comfy blanket and put him in the laundry room with his friends. He cried all night. We tried various combinations of the two and he still kept us up all night. In our sleep deprived haze, we cried, " No dogs in the bed!" But, we were wrong.

MM's real bed now consists of a pile of comfy blankets strategically placed on the floor next to my side of the bed. He will sleep there throughout most of the night, but come daybreak, he decides that he has had enough of sleeping alone and starts jumping at my side of the bed. I am not an early morning person. I do not get up at dawn unless I absolutely have to. So when Mighty Mouse starts his early morning calisthenics, I do what every other sane, sleep deprived person would do -- I reached over, pick him up, and stuff him in bed with me. He goes back to sleep. I go back to sleep. My bed smells like a hound dog. End of story.