Dog Bed No. 46
We have gone through a lot of dog beds over the years. Or, I should say, Terry has. Occasionally she destroys them, but most of the time she just wears them out. And, after a dozen washings, there isn’t much left to wash. Every time I’m faced with constructing a new dog bed, I try to find something that a) doesn’t cost a fortune and b) is easily washed. This time, thanks to the lad’s suggestion, I think we have pared this dog bed business down to a super-simple affair.
One thick and thirsty rag rug (41” x 60") and an egg carton foam twin bed pad. I simply folded the foam pad in half and put the rag rug (navy blue and dark green) on top. The foam pad keeps the rug (and bed) from sliding around on the kitchen floor-- and it’s thick and cushy enough for Terry to sink her bones into with utter comfort. The rug and padding are both small enough to easily put in the washing machine, at least a once a week routine now that mud season is upon us.
Of course, it required a trip to Wally-World, which I really hated to do, but there’s no place else around here that sells that sort of stuff. All told, the new bed came out to about $15. It’ll last as long as the other beds have lasted and when the egg carton foam pad wears out, it’s a $6 replacement. Terry could hardly wait until I had it assembled and is now about the happiest dog in town. She loves her new bed. And, I have to say, it looks a lot tidier than a bunch of blankets heaped on the floor or the crib mattress I found at a yard sale a couple of years ago.
Well, okay. So I also bought Terry a fancy bed for the bedroom. One with really thick stuffing and a lambs wool cover. I wanted something particularly tempting that makes my bed look like a second choice. (Good luck, me!) I brought the new bed upstairs and arranged it in the corner. The next thing I knew....
As far as Abbie’s concerned, it’s hers. See that possessive little paw? If THAT dog comes anywhere near it, Abbie’s going to get really sniffy about it. Which, of course, will provide all the incentive Terry needs to find it the most appealing bed in the house. This should be...oh...lots of fun.
Ancedote #562
I used to have two cats, Muffin and Basil, two big and elegant males with just tons of hormones and energy to waste.
BUT, as soon as they stepped on my (unfortunately real [it was a present]] small icebear fur, they simply stood, swaying back and forth, pressing each of their paws into the fur, one after another, purrrrrrrrrrring endlessly. Mind you, they never slept on it, but they loved doing whatever it was they were doing.
It got to be such a (long and somewhat noisy) ritual every night that I decided to remove the fur to the hallway. Needless to say, the cat skirmishes taking place in and around my bed were also reduced dramatically in number. The hallway had suddenly become a very attractive place.
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Now that you mention it, Steph, my parents had a Siamese, cat while I was growing up, who liked to eat wool. It wasn’t just a liking, either. Something inside him compelled him to eat wool. For years and years my Mom had nice thick wool blankets on the beds. In short order, this cat chewed large holes in almost all of them. If a guest draped a sweater over the back of the chair, there would be a huge hole in by the time they left. My mom made me a beautiful cranberry red wool coat, back in the day when the floor length coats were all the rage. Stupid cat got in the closet and ate a huge hole in the front, about six inches from the bottom of the coat. My beautiful brand new coat then became a midi-coat. And on it went. Wonderful cat, aside from his hunger for wool.
I never noticed Abbie having this love affair with wool before. Guess I never had anything wool for her to snuggle in. Nor a fur rug, though I can imagine that she’d love one of those, too. Well, at least she doesn’t show any signs of wanting to eat it.
Someone gave both my sons, small sheepskin rugs for their rooms way back when and our cat did exactly the same thing VH’s cats did. He would go into a trance over those rugs, strangest thing you ever saw. He rarely curled up on them to sleep, but sure did spend a lot of time kneading them........and purring.....
Posted by cyn on 03/17/06 at 09:14 AM
I think the cat will win! They usually do, right? I ran across a cute site that cat lovers will probably like: Cats In Sinks, which will have you overdoing it with the “Awwwwww"s but, still fun.
Well, Abbie is on the dog bed and Terry is on my bed, so I think that suggests who won. Both of them? I was probably dreaming pretty dreams if I thought Terry would prefer *anything* to my bed.
I love Cats in Sinks!!!
@ cyn
I’m glad my cats weren’t the only ones in perpetual trance states. That was some weird stuff. I don’t know if they were marking the fur or getting off on some strange inbred and kinky erotic cat stuff, but it was a sight to behold. Trance is the perfect word for it.
I’d like to see this trance state. Imagine if they could do a stream of consciousness dialog? 
While we’re on the subject of cats… Here’s a kitty photo that I just love. It’s from someone’s photo album on Flickr and is so quintessentially cat. It’s the kind of photo that makes everything feel right with the world.
Yep, that’s a great pic. When mine were young, they used to laze on my keyboard like that, dreaming away and keeping me from work. Actually I had a small program running on Win 98 that recognized erratic cat “typing” on the keyboard. Fun prog. It was right every time. ;)
If cats could do a stream of consciousness dialogue, James Joyce would probably have to dig himself a deeper grave. Cats are probably that much smarter.
And I’m a big fan of Joyce.
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There’s something about wool that cats really go for, so this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. Ruby has even figured how to get wool socks through the holes in my laundry hamper. Long ago I had to give one of my socks up to her, and she carries it around the house and does the paw-paw thing to it. Any wool sock on the floor is fair game, and I frequently find that they have migrated up to the bed. Yesterday I came home and had two in bed.
I read a web page somewhere that had to do with cats going after cardboard and wool, and how if it was really bad, you were supposed to lock them into a room you could wash down with a dead (but not cleaned) chicken that they could tear to shreds to get the hunting out of their system.
It’s not that bad by me.