A while back, a friend gave our Penny a present.

A dog bed.

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Penny has rigid routines and is loath to adopt any changes. She has her own couch for daytime sleeps or dozes, or maybe a snack or just somewhere to lie and stare out into the garden. She is quite possessive about the couch and if a visitor should be tactless enough to sit on it she will quietly sneak in behind them and attempt to gently push them off. If the visitor should stand, Penny will immediately stretch herself to her full length as a clear fuck off hint to the visitor.

Strangely enough she took to the bed straight away. She hasn’t forsaken the couch and has just assumed the new bed is an extension to her territory.

There is a slight problem with the bed though – it takes up floor space in an area where floor space is at a premium. And Penny has a habit of throwing all her blankets out of the bed and then lying half in the bed and half on the blankets. I think she saw something on the news about Israelis occupying territories and thought she’d give it a try. So if I’m not tripping over her bed, I’m tripping over her blankets.

The place where it normally resides is against the radiator beside her food bowl. As far as she’s concerned this is an excellent idea as she can then have breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks without getting out of bed. Unfortunately it’s right in the way of any movement in or out of Herself’s room so it has to get frequently shifted a few feet one way or another. You can see by her attitude that she barely tolerates this adjustment to her routine but she accepts it at a pinch.

We finally got rid of the Electric Chair. Herself decided she didn’t like it [it gave her backache] so for the last few weeks it has been shoved against a wall, taking up a lot of space [it’s a huge bruiser of a chair]. So I contacted the health mob who had supplied it and told ’em to take it back. They collected it this morning.

Suddenly there is an extra acre of space on the floor. The room looks considerably more, well, roomy.

I moved Penny’s bed into the space where the chair had been. It fits perfectly and Herself can now wheel herself wherever she wants to go without hindrance. I can walk around without tripping.

Penny went and stood where her bed had been. She looked around and then gave me a reproachful stare. She looked pointedly at every space on the floor except where the bed now is. She glared at me again.

Why do I get so much grief from the females in my life?