Diva Dog

Mika is allowed on furniture, including my bed, but not at night. She wasn’t very happy about this when she first found this out. She also doesn’t have a dog bed because she destroys them. I gave her a nice big blanket to nest in on the floor next to my bed instead.

Mika didn’t think the blanket was as comfortable as I did. She’d pace the room, dig on the carpet, and try to sneak onto my bed. One time she even attempted to sleep in Sammy’s little dog bed. A fifty-five pound dog trying to squeeze into a ten pound dog’s bed was hilarious for me. Not so much for her*.

When Mika had exhausted all other ploys, she would stand near the head of my bed and shake herself to wake me up. Then she’d just look at me with her big brown eyes and a soulful, pleading expression. I have to admit, I was tempted, but I stayed strong. Her begging didn’t work.

And so it went, her pacing and inching closer and closer to my bed, me constantly shouting, “Get off!” or hissing, “Don’t even think about it!” No one was getting much sleep.

Until one day I saw her lay down in my laundry basket. I immediately kicked her out, since the clothes in it were clean, but it gave me an idea. I took a larger laundry basket and filled it with her blanket. That night we tried it. Mika was not interested.

“Fine,” I said, “Have it your way.” Exhausted and at the end of my patience, I switched her blankets to original laundry basket, now devoid of clean clothes. Mika got right in and settled down**.

“What a diva,” I muttered as I climbed into bed and pulled the covers up. I was finally, going to get a good night’s sleep. Just as my head hit the pillow, I heard snoring coming from the laundry basket…

*See Figure 1

**See Figures 2, 3, and 4