Our dog does not subscribe to the English opinion that a person’s home is his castle, preferring instead to assume that absolutely everything belongs to her and the rest of us are merely borrowing it. This applies to our bed, the sofa and any and all chairs, blankets and throws, despite Hubby having lavished a very comfortable dog bed upon her (which nobody but the dog is permitted to approach).
After our recent apartment renovation, we lacked a surface by a window for the cat’s sleeping quarters. Following various experiments with potential perches, she decided she liked it best when her bed was by the patio doors, where she could observe happenings on the exterior of her queendom. It shocked nobody when the dog was found, that very same day, exercising squatters’ rights while the poor cat huddled in a corner under the coat rack.
It didn’t even appear to perturb her if the cat was already in the bed, fast asleep. A few nudges and pokes and she was able to make just about enough room for two, with or without the cat’s permission. Usually the latter, but a nip to the hindquarters from an irritated feline seemed only to deter her temporarily.
A second defining feature of our dog is her desperate desire to always be in the middle. When Hubby and I are both at home, she can only be happy when curled up precisely halfway between the two of us. It was in sympathy with this need that we’d placed her dog bed on the other side of the room, between Hubby’s computer desk and the sofa, where she could rest easy of an evening knowing she was keeping an eye on the both of us.
Despairing of ever convincing her that the cat bed doesn’t belong to her, we tried placing their beds side by side, hoping the cat could finally get some kip. It didn’t go well.
At this point, I ran out of ideas and decided that documenting the cuteness of a dog and a cat snuggling up together was vastly more rewarding. I snapped several pictures of their butts bulging out of the cat bed, such as this one:
Unfortunately, this image of domestic bliss was interrupted by the click from my camera phone. Happy they may be to spoon all day long, but they are not keen on the existence of photographic evidence.
The scene descended immediately into panic, a wild look in both animals’ eyes as they fled to separate corners of the house and pretended that nothing at all had happened.
After the exodus, neither pet would approach the bed for the rest of the afternoon and both kept a suspicious eye on my iTelephone. It turned out that the best way to convince them the cat bed is not big enough for the both of them was not to coax the dog back to her own cushion, but to threaten to tell the world that a cat and a dog can get along just fine after all.
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