Sleep tight . . .

Maggie's first weeks with us included the purchase of lots of items . . . some of which were never used, briefly used, or rarely used. Count a big, fluffy bed among the items that were briefly used.

When we first adopted Maggie she never moved unless we picked her up and carried her . . . except the seventh night she was with us. That day I had purchased a big, comfy, fluffy pillow bed for Maggie. When it was time for bed we laid her on her new bed and documented the moment with a photo - - you can see from the picture that she looks thrilled ;-) At 1 a.m. the dog that never moved got up and walked across the room to lay down in front of her crate.

That story isn't a big deal for a normal dog, but Maggie was (and in some ways still is) a shell of a dog. It took amazing courage for her to get up and walk across the room - - and was proof to us that she really, really didn't like that bed.

I returned that bed the next day, but her response to it left us in a pickle. We knew we needed to make Maggie comfortable, but how? We decided to start with a simple pad and work our way up (thus, the famous brown crate mats layered with her towels in every photo to date). In the beginning Maggie seemed to really love the crate pads, but over time they lost their allure - - she has become a dog used to living the good life and we could tell she was ready for something more.

Thanks to a doggie catalog that arrived in our mailbox, Steve found a couch / bed that looked perfect for Maggie. Our purchase arrived today and it's now the newest piece of "furniture" in our family room. We put a brown towel on it (that's the Maggie universal sign for "lay here") and she jumped right on. She's still adjusting, but we think she's happy with her new couch - - we just want her to be happy!!