Its not often I find myself in a bed shop. I think I must have had the same bed for ten years. The sales staff in bed shops are scary. They home in on you and start asking you questions that seem very personal - how do you like to sleep, hard or soft mattress? Storage or not? Divan or frame?. The trouble is, the bed isn't for me and my husband or my son. No indeed, the bed is not for any human member of our tribe. The new bed is for Gordon MacDonald who, now that he has reached his full height and weight (34inches at the shoulder and 42 kilos), is finding it increasingly difficult to get comfy, even on the sofa. He has taken to standing outside our bedroom door and whinning for hours because he wants to get in and spread out on our kingsized number, which has a really comfy mattress topper and an extra thick duvet. He doesn't bother with my son's bed because its a raised cabin bed and anyway it belongs to the cat when my son isn't sleeping on it. I have been getting tired of finding him asleep on our bed after having scraped the duvet into a suitably large pile and topped it with a pillow or two. When I try to get him off he pretends to be asleep and recently has taking to lifting his head after ten minutes of prolonged shouting only to yawn and fall back to sleep again. Hence me and Bob found ourselves in the bed shop, trying to buy a bed that would fit in my study and be big enough for Gordon MacDonald (over six foot in either direction) so when the boy salesman with the three gelled down whips of hair and the super strong Lynx effect asked me if I wanted a hard or soft mattress I just looked at him and said 'Its for a dog, a big skinny dog who likes his home comforts' and the way that he looked at me spoke volumes about how other people see my dog induced madness. Still, he sold me a bed any dog would be proud of and now I hardly get to see Gordon MacDonald unless I am working because he has taken to that bed like its his long lost friend. In fact, he is asleep on it right now, his tongue lolling out on a pillow. And I am going to have to open a window because my study reeks of contented dog blarts. I hadn't thought about that side of sharing my work space....
