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I’ve always let my dogs get in bed with me. It got a little crowded when I got married as I tried to keep them on my side of the bed. Tippi’s incontinence made this practice less desirable, so after we lost her and took a break from having pets, we got a new bed. Even though we had a protective mattress pad we decided not to have dogs in our new bed.

Yep, that made lots of sense and was easy to agree to – when there were no dogs in the house.

Lucy came into my life and our house over Thanksgiving and Christmas. She was a total snuggle bug and we spent a lot of time on the couch with her head in my lap, but I kept to my agreement and she spent her nights all cozy in her crate.

Even so, Charlie said he really saw the joy I get from snuggling with dogs.

Bubba Rex came into our care needing lots of love and affection – the healing touch, so to speak. He’s not a complete lap-dog like Lucy, but he does like to snuggle up with me on the couch Saturday mornings for cartoons.

Rex went through a period where we had him on steroids to get him through a particularly itchy stage. Of course, steroids made him drink more and he was getting me up a couple of times a night for potty breaks. Now, I can do this without really waking up (Tippi conditioned me to this) but following the 3 AM outing Rex  would feel like playing or want a drink of water or a little bite to eat.

I discovered that I could get him to settle down for a snooze on the couch, but I really wanted more of that good bed sleep. So one night to get some more good sleep and keep him out of trouble I let Rex get in bed with me. He quickly curled up next to me and we snoozed for several more hours. Hmmmm, it was definitely easier keeping Rex out of stuff when he was sleeping in the bed.

And so it went, he sleeps in the bed every night and like any kid looks just so dang cute that you forget about all his daytime shenanigans.

And he’s quite the little heater – now if I can just get him trained to sleep next to my feet on these cold nights.