A futon, a dog, and a new bed
As Gretel gets older, she slowly becomes a well-behaved animal. She is chewing a little less on things she is not supposed to chew on. She is able to greet visitors without totally drowning them with her tongue, knocking them down, and deafening them with barking. We don't have to have the kitchen blocked off with a baby gate. But she is still a Labrador who is only a year a half, so her improvements are still a work in progress.
Sometimes the dog forgets herself. Every so often, we will all realize that it has been a while since we have seen her. If when called, Gretel comes happily towards you, all is well. But if the dog skulks and slinks and pretends she isn't there, you know something is amiss. And you can be assured that it will be unpleasant and most likely involve pee. On a bed. It is her least endearing habit. So far the lucky recipients have been me and J., P., and TM. This most recent occurrence was the futon which K. had been sleeping on while B. was home. On the plus side, the futon wasn't currently in use. On the far more negative side, it is filled with cotton batting which absorbs pee like a sponge and is nearly impossible to clean. Despite our best efforts, it continued to stink, the stink just became more interesting as varying layers of cleaning attempts were added. Finally, we shoved it in a corner and pretended it was a problem we didn't have to deal with at the moment.
And then I receive a message out of the blue from a friend. She had a trundle bed with mattresses in her storeroom, would we be interested in it?
This is one of those questions we didn't even have to think about. Yes, we wanted it. It would solve multiple difficulties all at once. First, we could dispose of the stinky futon and still have a place for both boys to sleep when B. was home. Second, it was a far better alternative since the trundle is made so that the mattress is far off the floor, thus making it a much warmer sleeping situation. A trundle bed is really the perfect solution to that sleeping problem, but we had never considered it because buying a new bed just wasn't in the cards.
I told my friend how perfect it was and we both exclaimed at the wonder of God's timing. You see, the same day when the dog was inappropriately marking her territory, my friend was feeling able to tackle her storeroom... something she had been avoiding for various reasons.
God is good. Gretel is trying. (In both senses of the word.)
Sometimes the dog forgets herself. Every so often, we will all realize that it has been a while since we have seen her. If when called, Gretel comes happily towards you, all is well. But if the dog skulks and slinks and pretends she isn't there, you know something is amiss. And you can be assured that it will be unpleasant and most likely involve pee. On a bed. It is her least endearing habit. So far the lucky recipients have been me and J., P., and TM. This most recent occurrence was the futon which K. had been sleeping on while B. was home. On the plus side, the futon wasn't currently in use. On the far more negative side, it is filled with cotton batting which absorbs pee like a sponge and is nearly impossible to clean. Despite our best efforts, it continued to stink, the stink just became more interesting as varying layers of cleaning attempts were added. Finally, we shoved it in a corner and pretended it was a problem we didn't have to deal with at the moment.
And then I receive a message out of the blue from a friend. She had a trundle bed with mattresses in her storeroom, would we be interested in it?
This is one of those questions we didn't even have to think about. Yes, we wanted it. It would solve multiple difficulties all at once. First, we could dispose of the stinky futon and still have a place for both boys to sleep when B. was home. Second, it was a far better alternative since the trundle is made so that the mattress is far off the floor, thus making it a much warmer sleeping situation. A trundle bed is really the perfect solution to that sleeping problem, but we had never considered it because buying a new bed just wasn't in the cards.
I told my friend how perfect it was and we both exclaimed at the wonder of God's timing. You see, the same day when the dog was inappropriately marking her territory, my friend was feeling able to tackle her storeroom... something she had been avoiding for various reasons.
God is good. Gretel is trying. (In both senses of the word.)
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