Furry Friday: Sidelined Slumber

Two nights this week are particularly memorable to me.  Monday night and last night.  Monday night was a "slept like a rock" kind of night whereas last night was the "toss and turn, up since 4am" version.  Sometimes my sleep patterns can be attributed to caffeine too close to bed, whether or not I exercised that evening, what I ate for supper, etc.  However, a great majority of the time my sleep patterns (much like my life) revolve around Riley Chance.  One would think that a 15-17lb dachshund wouldn't take up much space in a queen sized bed, but he does.  Especially when he decides to lay perpendicular to you. If you haven't noticed, dachshunds are long!  I have found that my best nights of sleep, like Monday night, are when Riley is also exhausted and stays put the whole evening.  Nights like last night he was all over the place.  First he was by my head, then he decided to sleep by my stomach, then he decided he needed to be under the blankets, then he got too warm and decided to kick the blankets off, and finally he felt it was necessary to hog the pillows after practically stepping on my face.  It's a jarring feeling to be woken up by a dog who's just stepped on your hair, and that's putting it politely.   Needless to say, I didn't sleep well last night.

 

At this point you are probably wondering why we let our fur-child sleep with us.  Well, that stems back to when we first acquired him.   We weren't supposed to have a dog at the apartment.  He decided it'd be a good idea to whimper all night from his crate which we were sure would wake the downstairs neighbor and blow our cover.  So, being the empathetic humans that we are, we surmised that his heartbreaking whimpers meant that he missed his mother and siblings and we caved and let him sleep with us.  He wiggled his little 5lb self between our two pillows and shut up almost immediately.  He's slept with us ever since.  In the early years we didn't get much sleep with him however due to his incessant need to go out, the many evenings he'd decide to upchuck if he had a snack too close to bed time, and of course his ever constant need to move around.  Now we just struggle with his need to move around.  I must say we're lucky though that thunderstorms and such don't bother him and he doesn't woof at every little sound.  He also throws a lot of heat in the winter time.  So there are a few bonuses.

How many of you allow your pets to sleep with you?  Common problems, funny stories?  Post them here.