Last year when Tom and I made our Christmas lists, we asked for donations to our bed fund. Our mattress and box springs were around twenty years old, and our been-thirty-five-a-few-times muscles and bones were starting to feel it. In addition, our bed itself, which we loved, had been a trade with Lynne for another piece of furniture. The bed was more than thirty years old, and one day the place where the side rail hooked into the footboard stripped. Since Margot’s favorite place to write her emo poetry is under the bed, to ensure her safety, we propped everything up with bricks with that “fix it when we get around to it” attitude.
As it turned out, 2013 had different financial challenges for us, so the new mattress was put on hold. But this year, thanks to Tom’s super generous parents, we were finally able to purchase our new mattress and box springs. As it turned out, a friend who’s moving also had a bed and nightstand for sale at a fantastic price, so now–YAY!–a new to us bed that doesn’t need bricks under it.
Meanwhile, we had to make another tough decision. We’ve always let the dogs sleep with us if they want to. Tom had built a ladder for the dachshunds Pete and Stevie to get in and out of bed, and Margot and Guinness used that for a while, then they jumped up via the blanket chest we put at the foot of the bed. But with aging dogs come certain problems, and Guinness has occasionally started to “leak” in her sleep. This always wakes her and sends her jumping from the bed, which wakes me, and I take her outside in the middle of the night for a potty break. Of course, this means we have to wash our bedding whenever it happens.
The new bed is much higher than the old one and I don’t want the dogs jumping on and off it anyway and potentially hurting their backs. So the blanket chest has been moved and their crates were put at the foot of the bed on Sunday. Margot slept in one or the other of the crates most of the day, and as you can see in the above photo, Guinness has figured out where the crates are now. I don’t think she’s going to like the new “no big bed” rule at all, so I might have to bribe her a few nights to sleep in the crate until she gets used to it and forgets there was ever another way.
So many of our friends are, like us, having to make allowances for aging dogs. They have earned their gentle old ages of mostly sleeping, and they deserve all the creature comforts we can give them. But if I had it to do all over again, I’d keep them out of the bed from the start. Lesson learned.
Pretty bed and pretty bedding!
We’re getting a new bed this week, too, our old one being over 20 years old.
The dogs don’t sleep with us at night, they usually congregate in the computer room. I do let them sleep with me during the day when I work, though. We put an old comforter on the bed to help protect the nicer one. Phoebe hasn’t made it on the bed for some time now, she climbs up on the chair we have in there to sleep.
I feel bad–I don’t like changing things for old dogs. But I also don’t want a new mattress ruined. There are so many dog beds and crates throughout the house, and they’re perfectly content to use those all day. They just have to get used to sleeping on/in them at night, too.
Love the new bed!
Your post got me thinking about my own queen size bed. I couldn’t recall at first when I bought it (I knew it had been with me through at least four moves), until I remembered I have a picture of my niece sitting in the middle of it, which was taken about six months after she was born. My niece will be twelve next month, so I’m going with 12. 8 more years to go!
We loved our old bed, but this was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up. Now if you’re talking mattresses, I was shocked to hear they should be replaced every five to seven years. I’m saying at least ten. Geez.
Nice new bed! Jake’s new sleeping pattern is to fall asleep on the chaise lounge in the family room, come down to my room some time in the middle of the night to curl up on the dog bed on the floor, and then jump up on my bed to curl up with me until I decide it is time for our morning walk (if it were up to him, he would just stay curled up most of the day). I may regret it in his later years, but I love when he curls up with me – he is such a sweet snuggly pooch.
If it weren’t for Guinness “leaking” we wouldn’t have changed a thing. I like snuggling with the dogs, too! Especially if they stretch out along my spine–it’s like having a heating pad!
Jake knows what a lucky dog he is.
love the new bed… it looks great (and comfy!)
now that Hailey is 14, she hasn’t been able to jump on or off the bed for some time. but she does get lifted up at night and when she’s ready to get down from being too hot, she stands up and shakes her collar to wake me and I get up (usually in my sleep) and lift her down… then she goes to lay down on the tile floor in the bathroom. Bill calls me the “Daddy-elevator.”
Ha ha! There are worse things to be than the “Daddy-elevator.” She’s such a sweetheart, that Hailey, nothing’s too good for her.
I did the sleep lift thing with Pete the dachshund, but props on doing that with a Golden Retriever.
Ha ha–many’s the time I was on the phone with Jim late at night (pre doggie stairs) and he heard Pete’s single commanding bark and said, “Pete’s ready for bed now.”
Nice bed!
There is no way a dog would ever forget that they once owned a huge bed and shared it with honored guests. 🙂
I just don’t allow the dogs in my room. They can scratch on the door all they want. Eventually, they give up and go into the parents’ room. Now, if the door is ajar, they sit patiently outside, and they wait until I go out. They dream of the day, one day, that I move out again and they get “their” room back.
You’re right–they are NOT forgetting. I’m hoping with time…
Ha ha–you know, if those were cats you were keeping out, they’d be plotting your demise to get their room back.
I’m always happy when Dash lets me on his bed.
Thanks–I didn’t feel guilty enough already.
when I’m feeling poorly, as I have been the past two days, Dash always sleeps right next to me. Usually he gets at the bottom at the bed, but when I am sick he gets right up next to me… so he can stare into my face
He’s a good boy.
Pretty bed and bedroom! So glad you were able to upgrade.
Chris allowed Poppy on the bed when she was unwell and there’s no getting her off now! Scruff seems to be (generally) happy with his beanbag at the foot of the bed.
Funny how their different personalities manifest in their habits and preferences, isn’t it?
I have been contemplating moving from the back bedroom to the master bedroom for seven years now. The major sticking point has been replacing the now antique bedroom suite that currently fills the room. Decisions, decisions! I do know the replacement will be a platform bed. I’m afraid of sleeping on tall beds.
Are you afraid of rolling off? I know it can happen!
When we got this one home, it was so high I couldn’t get on it. We had to do some creative stuff to bring it down to a reasonable level. They make mattresses and box springs a lot thicker these days. New stuff: always an adventure!
I remember going to The Hermitage when I was a little girl and the beds were so high up, and my Mom asked how Andrew Jackson could climb in … I of course knew that Andy had magic powers.