In Bed with the Dog
Sofie is a misfit designer dog, a cross between a Bassett Hound and some kind of wire haired terrier. She has the short legs and big feet, the knock kneed Plie (ballet) stance and can howl and bay if she really feels the need, which is thankfully, not very often. She got shortchanged in the ear department though. Her ears are the only smooth haired part of her and they droop but they are not very long. We chose her at the local shelter to keep Raster, our now deceased, border collie mix company while I was away at work all day. The pair of them were supposed to guard the chickens and keep the deer out of the yard but they tended to wait patiently on the porch when we were here waiting for us to yell,
“Get ‘em! Get the deer. “ or
“Chickens! Get the fox!”
It is possible they chased critters away while we were gone but I kind of doubt it. Still, they were good dogs. They spent good weather days wandering around outside on about 4 fenced acres and were always glad to see us. That is the best thing about dogs. They love you no matter what you might say to them. Our dogs always come inside with us and they’ve claimed their space on the floor near the woodstove or right up on the couch. Never on the human bed though. Well, only when the grandkids sleep over. We banned them from our room long ago because they snored worse than we did.
Sofie is lonely now that Raster is gone and gets way too excited when we have company. She loves kids and never gives up hope that everyone she sees will love her back. Being so short makes her have to jump up to get attention though and no one likes that.
This weekend we are hosting a couple of musicians from Canada with their year old son and a friend to help with babysitting. They are teaching at the 14th annual Fiddlers Retreat, put on by Shepherdstown Music and Dance, and last night they helped kick it off with a great concert. The baby slept through their act bundled on his mama’s back while she stood tall and fiddled numerous tunes for us. It was pretty impressive. They all stayed late jamming and did not arrive at our house until about midnight.
I stayed up reading so I could greet them and as soon as Sofie heard their car doors, she was wide awake. So was the baby. Sofie has a terrible habit of jumping on people for attention and it was difficult to calm her down. She loves kids, or anyone who will pet her. No one really wanted to deal with her though so I locked her upstairs in our bedroom in an attempt to restore calm. We really needed to get some sleep but it took about an hour and a half for everyone to settle in for the night.
Meanwhile, Sofie had persuaded Jeff to allow her on the bed- just to keep her from whining. She spent the whole night with us and will be doing the same tonight. She obviously does not mind at all and the only snoring I heard was from Jeff, who is fighting a cold and keeping himself away from our guests.
Once winter finally decides to arrive, and the woodstove is cranking again, the living room will be a much warmer place to sleep and she will have the whole couch to herself and probably won’t even want to sleep with us. Having a dog in my bed is not a long term thing for me. It is only for 2 nights. I would have to give her way more baths, for one thing, and it is crowded enough with two of us in there.