Chanel has been spending quite a bit of time at home by herself lately. My working arrangements have changed and I'm not able to take her to work with me every day anymore. Consequently I think Chanel is having to get used to a new routine and she seems to have become more cling-y. Normally she only hangs out on our bed when we're not on it. If one of us goes to bed she'll hang out for a few minutes before departing the room. Yes the room, not just the bed. If both of us climb into bed at the same time she's gone before we have a chance to even settle in. And if we try to coax her to join us on the bed she manages to suddenly go either completely deaf or completely daft, (or both). Pat the bed, call her name, she anxiously makes her way to the other side of the bed looking like she'll jump up any moment and then usually vacates the room rather abruptly shortly after, never once attempting to climb on up.
And then there other night came along...
I snuggled in under the covers. Jon was brushing his teeth and then would be joining me soon. Chanel wonders into the room and looking ever so adorable I succumb to her spell. Gently and very non-committaly I pat the bed and say "You can come up" confident she'll look at me blankly and then go lie down in the living room. Before the sentence was even remotely finished she was making her way onto the bed next to me. Jon comes in to go to bed but it's too late. Chanel has successfully taken over his entire side of the bed. Not because she's spread out, (yet), but because she's just a big dog.
Feeling bad that I invited her up, and she actually came, I didn't have the heart to kick her off. On the other hand, I wasn't about to ask my husband to sleep on the couch because I felt bad for our dog... We tried to coax her down to the bottom of the bed, though still between us and that's when she took the opportunity to stretch out. She didn't roll over on her side, she just stretched out on her stomach now taking up more bed. Somehow we managed to get her a little bit farther down the bed and that was sufficient for a bit. Eventually, after our phones were plugged in, alarms set, and tomorrow's agenda discussed, we turned out the lights and then tried to figure out how to snuggle with a giant fluff ball still solidly wedged between us.
Upon decided that her vacating the bed was really the best option for all of us Chanel did not feel the same way. She was dead weight. Didn't budge, didn't want to get up, didn't even appear to acknowledge that we were asking her to do something. We gave up for a moment thinking, "We're smart. We should be able to figure out how to snuggle in spite of our live stuffed animal"... Well we're not that smart. Somehow we managed to get her off the bed and after we finally settled in for the night and Chanel found a tolerable spot on the floor, we heard a long heavy, (what I imagine to be) irritated, put out, exasperated sigh expelled from our adorable little dethroned bed hog.
