Fred Woke Me Up This Morning

I woke up a little before 4:00 AM. I had no idea why I was awake, I just was. Something woke me up.

Soon after my home improvements this summer, I decided to adjust the sleeping arrangements between Fred and I. As you well know, I love Fred, dearly, not to the point of weirdness, but he means the world to me. Pretty much all of his little life, he has slept in the bed with me, under the covers.  For the most part it’s worked fine, kind of. His hair is very coarse and he sheds plenty of it. It can be penetrating at times. This can drive a person crazy, it’s itchy. Once, I was walking in my bare feet around the house and one of his hairs poked into my foot like a sliver. I had to get the tweezers to remove it, it was weird and it really hurt. That’s how coarse it is.

Well, it was time for Fred to sleep in his own bed, his snoopy bed, which he readily sleeps in during the day. It was going to be a warm night and I just didn’t want to deal with the “snuggler”, the hair, or the occasional kick that he’s famous for. I put the snoopy bed on my bed, had a “conversation” with Fred about the new arrangement and he reluctantly agreed. That was about mid July when we started our  new “arrangement” and it has worked out very good since then, actually it’s worked out really good, for me anyway. Fred, not so much.

Even though it’s getting into the upper 40’s to low 50’s at night, I still like to have my ceiling fan on and my window cracked open just a bit when I sleep, I just do. It is very stifling for me if I don't have at least a window open a little. I know this can be an issue for Fred so I have tried to make sure that Fred will stay warm while he is in his snoopy bed. It is a challenge. You see, Fred won’t get a winter coat and the Boston breed only has one layer of fur, unlike most dogs, or animals for that matter. Most animals have 2 or more layers. He just isn’t very well equipped for the temps to be too hot or too cold. So before I go to sleep at night I make sure Fred is comfortable and covered up. By covered up I mean covered up. Completely tucked under my old sweatshirt that I use for his top blanket. No nose peeking out, nothing. Most nights he stays that way all night. He really is a funny little guy.

Very cozy snoopy bed

I tucked the snoopy bed into my old robe for extra comfort.



Obviously he's sticking out here, it wouldn't really be that interesting if he wasn't.




Apparently at some point very early this morning, his covers came off,  he made sure I was aware of his plight. He was cold.

As I lay there, trying to figure out why I was awake, I started hearing various noises coming from Fred's direction, not ordinary Fred noises, I heard heavy sighing, an occasional high whine, and a teeth chattering like sound. Ah Ha! Mystery solved! Fred was cold and he needed me to do something about it...NOW. As soon as I glanced in his direction, he POPPED out of his snoopy bed like a shot and stood above me, stared at me with his huge eyes and shivered.

Now here’s where it gets tricky. I know I could just I let him climb into the bed with me and get right back to sleep, that would be the easy thing to do. However, if I do that, I am basically telling him it’s OK to wake me up in order for him to get under the covers. This just isn’t OK for me, I’ve really been enjoying my space a lot and I want this sleeping arrangement to continue. If I let him do it once, it will become his norm, one time, that’s all it takes with Fred. So I compromised, in a way. I let him sleep on the pillow by my head. At first, Fred was quite happy just to be near me and I almost dozed off. Then the whining, chattering and shivering started, again. He was still chilly and I knew it. He was totally flying off the charts on the cuteness scale too. So of course, I started smiling because he was so cute. I probably laughed out loud. Well, since I was smiling and laughing, that was his cue  to really turn on the pathetic adorableness, the whole thing was perpetuating. It was all I could do to not just grab him and snuggle the crap out of him. But I didn’t, and it was very hard for me to resists. Fred knows very well how to push my buttons in order for him to get his way, and that’s one of them. Instead, I got up. By then it was a little after 5:00 AM, I was wide awake.

"What? No, I don't want to get up, it's too early. I can't open my eyes."

I came downstairs, made my coffee and I have been cuddling and snuggling with Fred ever since. It’s now 9:30 AM. I have been up for hours.

"This was NOT what I had in mind"
Me neither pal...

I am really not sure who the winner is here.

Tonight, I think I am going to put a heating pad in his bed, set it on the lowest setting and see how that goes. It has an auto shut off feature and it's pretty much brand new, which is good, just not sure if this will be the solution.

Any thoughts?

Fred's Ordeal cont...

I'm sure you've all been sitting on pins and needles worrying about how Fred's night went last night...

I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

This was last night, Fred was not going anywhere. Except under the covers, of course!

This morning.

We both got a pretty decent nights sleep. Well, Fred did anyway, he was a serious Bed Hog!

We will be having a conversation about that tonight.

It was interesting sleeping with my dresser and night stand 2" from the bed and my head. Climbing in and out got a bit comical. Sort of like climbing into the berth of small sailboat...

The captions are a little hard to read (learning curve), if you click on the photos you should be able to see a larger view. Or, you can get a magnifing glass...sorry

Freds' Ordeal

I have lived in my house now for 18 years. It was brand new when we moved into it and it is a very nice house. It is a two story traditional, with about 2000 sq. feet, 3 bedrooms upstairs, living space downstairs. However, it is way too much house for just Fred and I. It has become apparent that it’s time to sell. Time to find something that is more manageable for me. I am not sure where I would like to go just yet, but it will be closer to my Mom and Sister. Obviously, now is not the time to sell due to the horrible housing slump and lucky for me, I don’t have to move right away. I’ve got time.

So, with the help of my Mom and Sister, we have begun the process of getting the house all spiffy. Which includes new siding, new interior paint, etc.. Well, that work started this week, with a vengeance, I’ve got pounding going on on the outside, paint people bustling around on the inside, busy, busy, busy.

Paint Crew (Not sure if there's work going on)

Upstairs Hall

Fred and I are just trying to keep out of the way. I’m also cleaning things as they are taken down and moved around for painting. The upstairs is almost finished, except for my room…

The painters left yesterday afternoon and said they wouldn’t be back until Friday. OK, I had hoped things would keep moving but I understand. Like I said, I’ve got time

After they left I decided to check on the upstairs progress so far. The two bedrooms are done for the most part, the main bath upstairs looks done, there is still plenty of clean up to do, but there’s paint on the walls, it’s all good.

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 2

Main Bathroom

Then I went to look in my room and this is what I saw…

Door to my bedroom

If you look real close you can see my bed all wrapped up in a couple of layers of plastic, you may not be able to make it out, but trust me, it’s in there. And there’s chunks of plaster everywhere on the floor.

I had asked the painting crew earlier in the day if I was going to be able to sleep in my room, they had assured me I could, the bed and dresser would just be moved away from the walls. Well, apparently they didn’t pass this info onto the drywall guy that was patching up the various nicks and dents that had occurred throughout the years, also, there was some moisture damage on the ceiling in my room and he needed to scrape the old stuff off, then retexture today. Hmmm, Oh well, we won’t be doing any sleeping in there.

I’ll survive, and hopefully, it’s just for one night. I’m thankful that the work is getting done. I can’t get to my clothes either, the dresser is also enshrined in plastic. I could probably pick around and retrieve something, but I don’t want to mess up the “packaging” and I don’t really need to go anywhere today that requires another set of clothes. The drywall guy should be back later on today to hopefully finish what he needs to do.

As I had posted before, click on The Nap , I have a couch that even though it may not be the prettiest thing, it’s a great napping couch. Emphasis on napping. Not that great for an all niter. It’s also not the end of my world. It is however the end of Fred's.

There’s no room for the two of us. Fred was going to have to fend for himself this time. I finally decided it was time for bed, and proceeded to walk the 6 or so feet to what was going to be my bed for the evening and started my usual routine, getting the pillow just so, blanket all nice and cozy, then I laid down. Fred marched up to my face as I was lying there, and just stared at me, for what seemed like an eternity. Then he put his front paws up and finagled a belly rub out of me, acting pretty forlorn. He knew he couldn’t sleep on the couch with me. He tried to plead his case with me, big huge eyes, the works, but, there just isn’t room. He gets too large at night (translation: bed hog). I finally told him to go sleep in his snoopy bed or the rocking chair or something and he stepped off. First he hopped up onto the snoopy bed and rooted around there pretty good, there is another blanket up there too, rooted around with that real good, it was neatly folded, now it’s not.

Good ole' Snoopy

The "neatly" folded blanket.

He was rooting with a purpose, to make sure I knew, without a doubt, he was not happy about this situation.

"This is not comfortable"

After all that rooting around, Fred then hopped off the bed and into the rocking chair. He twirled around a few times, then he finally settled, and proceeded to glare stare at me. I could “feel” him watching my every move.

"I am not happy about this situation"

My "nest" for the night

I closed my eyes and tried to get some zz’s. Pretty soon I heard Fred hop off the chair a proceed to walk through the kitchen (tic a tic a tic a) and then I heard him stomp up the stairs. I guess he decided he was going to sleep on my bed as usual, with or without me. He’d had enough of this. Obviously, he had forgotten there was a mess up there. I really wish I could’ve watched him as he very purposely stomped up the stairs to go to bed, and then to see the look on his face when he ran into the big wall of plastic covering the entrance to my bedroom. “DOH!”

So down the stairs he stomped and through the kitchen he tic a tic a tic a’d, and hopped up into his snoopy bed… again. He let out an audible harrruuummmph! I peeked up over my blanket and all I could see were two big ears perked and pointed in my direction. He probably held that position all night.

"Wake up, wake up, wake up Mama!..."

Well, we made it through the night and I got up before the siding guys arrived so I could brace myself for the pounding and the various power tools to begin again.

Before I hopped off the couch though, Fred came over to say good morning and jumped up on the couch next to me for a little morning snuggle. And, I kid you not, he was actually shivering! It wasn’t cold, or anything. He acted like he had just been through the worst most awful night in his whole entire life. He just sat next to me and trembled, when he shivers, he breaths through his mouth, it’s very odd. It kind of sounds like little gasps, like after a child has been crying really hard, and they have hard time catching their breath. He was really pouring it on, it was pathetic. Alright, I’m not gonna lie here, it was totally freakin’ adorable! He wanted to make darn sure I knew how horribly awful his night was.

I heard ya Freddy, loud and clear.

I hope we can return to the regular sleeping arrangement tonight, if nothing else, for Fred’s sake, even if the bed is all askew. I’m not sure he will survive another night like that.

First floor

"What's with the filthy dude?"

I can't wait until it's all done!

To be continued…